Orlando Bloom made the ultimate sacrifice before he and now-pregnant fiancé Katy Perry started dating.
The 43-year-old, one of the most popular Hollywood actors, revealed in a Sunday Times interview that he abstained from sex for six months until he met the 35-year-old singer. Bloom and Perry first sparked romance rumors in January 2016 after flirting at two Golden Globes after-parties.
The actor told the newspaper that his surfer friend Laird Hamilton suggested he try celibacy, after he had told him he "wasn't happy."
"Laird said, 'If you want to be serious about a relationship, go celibate for a few months and figure it out,'" Bloom said. "It takes away the idea of going to a party and thinking, 'Who am I going to meet?' I was suddenly, like, 'Oh, I can have a relationship with a woman that is just friends.'"
Bloom said he had never been just friends with women before because sex always got in the way.
"I was going to do three months [of abstaining], but I was really enjoying the way I was relating to women, and to the feminine within myself," the actor said.
And no sex meant no sexual stimulation whatsoever.
"It was insane," Bloom told the Sunday Times. "I don't think it's healthy. I don't think it was advisable. You have to keep it moving down there."
Bloom and Perry initially dated for about 10 months before calling it quits in early 2017, then reconciled the following summer. They got engaged on Valentine's Day 2019. Last month, Perry announced in her "Never Worn White" music video that she is pregnant with the couple's first baby.
"This kind of joy isn't something you can put into words—or really wrap your head around," Bloom told the Sunday Times. "Obviously, we've known for a long time before going public. As you can imagine, it's such an incredibly precious, private, yet commonplace moment to be sharing with the world."
"The whole family is over the moon," he added.
Their child will be the second for Bloom, who shares a 9-year-old son, Flynn, with ex-wife Miranda Kerr, who is married to Snapchat co-founder Evan Spiegel.
Bloom talked to the Sunday Times about Perry's personality, saying she likes to "do, see and experience things."
"My son put it so well. I asked, 'What's it like with Mum and her husband? How's it different to us?'" the actor said. "He smiled. 'You're the fun couple.'"