Born in Sheffield, England in 1986, Alex Turner is best known as the frontman and chief lyricist of the rock band Arctic Monkeys. But he is also a musician and songwriter whose songs defy genre, and a cultural icon whose works and fame have transcended the boundaries of rock.
Arctic Monkeys formed in Sheffield when Alex Turner, the band’s lead singer, was 17 years old and gathered some of his school friends together. Their debut album, Whatever People Say I Am, That’s What I’m Not (2006), was the fastest selling debut album in UK history. It sold 118,501 copies on the first day of its release and 363,735 copies in the first week, from 21-28 January 2006.
His words – full of wry satirical observations of working-class life and pop culture references – spoke to fans around the world.
But even away from the Arctic Monkeys, Turner has taken musical detours. He has co-founded a side-project band with Miles Kane, The Last Shadow Puppets, that takes a much more cinematic, orchestral sound. He has flirted with film scoring, and released a solo EP Submarine (2018) that again demonstrated his musical elasticity.
Alex Turner’s dandyish sartorial choices and period embrace of a retro look have made him a menswear icon, while his lyrics have been picked over line by line like poetry, their literary allusions and verbal play triggering an entire sub-industry of deconstruction. He’s become a totem of culture, persona non grata embodied, fronting a generation in search of meaning through indie rock.
Offstage, he is equally cryptic, and his now-ended relationship with the fashion model Alexa Chung – along with his other high-profile romances – has been almost as well chronicled as his music, making him a reluctant heartthrob.
Why was Alex Turner and Alexa Chung’s relationship such a pop culture phenomenon? This article explains how their relationship became talked about and why there was so much fascination with the story of one of the most publicised couples in 21st-century rock music.
Who Is Alexa Chung?
The daughter of an English mother and a Chinese-descent father, she was born in Winchester, England in 1983. Growing up, Alexa dabbled in competitive horse riding and ballet dancing, both of which showcased the creativity that she would later harness in her career. Initially landed with ambitions of studying at King’s College London and Chelsea College of Arts, her creative calling took a detour on the first day of Reading Festival, where she was 16 and scouted by a modelling agency.
Alexa started with teen magazines and modelling for brands, and her early career was unquestionably a success. However, after four years, she found she couldn’t take it any longer, and left, disillusioned with the toll the fashion world took on her self-esteem and body image.
As a result of this, Alexa Chung swiftly moved from the catwalk to the small screen, and her considerable charisma and wit catapulted her to fame as a presenter on Popworld and T4. She temporarily stepped away from modelling, but then returned to work with brands that reformed her image, presenting collections and fronting for ethical fashion brands such as Mango. She also became the face of New Look and DKNY Jeans.
She built a reputation as a fashion icon with a relaxed, easy-to-wear style and soon found herself on ‘best-dressed’ lists and, eventually, in the sought-after front row at the world’s major fashion shows. Big brands such as Pepe Jeans London, Lacoste and Superga have all employed her as the face of their campaigns, while the huge popularity of the ‘Alexa’ bag, launched by the British luxury label Mulberry in 2010 and selling an impressive 380 in the first week alone, is a perfect example of her influence on consumer trends.
While her work as a model and TV personality have earned her a growing international presence, Chung is also a writer (her book It was published in 2013) and an entrepreneur, who launched her own fashion label, ‘alexachung’, in 2017 (it was closed in 2022). Design collaborations with US label J Crew’s Madewell and AG Jeans further showcased her design talents to wider audiences. She has also been recognised by the British Fashion Council, winning the British Style Award in 2010 and being voted for by the public to win that same award in 2011, 2012 and 2013.
Alex Turner and Alexa Chung’s Relationship
And although she is firmly ensconced in fashion, Alexa Chung had always had an affinity for music festivals. It was at T in the Park in 2007 – when the Arctic Monkeys were playing their first two albums – that she met their frontman Alex Turner. Music, fashion, a bit of oddball charm: they shared a lot in common.
The friendship that emerged from this tryst quickly turned into romance and the couple began dating in April 2007 after meeting at the Coachella music festival. (The video for The Last Shadow Puppets’ song ‘My Mistakes Were Made For You’, the side project of Turner with Miles Kane, confirms this.)
After their relationship was confirmed, coverage of the pair became one of the biggest sources of gossip for the Arctic Monkeys’ fans and the British tabloid press, which has a reputation for excessively invasive coverage of celebrity privacy. However, despite the media attention, the couple provided many swoon-worthy moments, and resulted in various bits of lovelorn songwriting, including ‘She’s Thunderstorms’, from the Suck It And See album, which came to be known as ‘Alexa’s song’.
Alexa Chung and Alex Turner dated for four years, from 2007 to 2011. They broke up but were said to have done so on relatively good terms. Chung wrote an entire chapter on her former boyfriend in her book, IT (2013), referring to him as ‘Al’ and, in the book’s QA section, revealing in 2013 to The Guardian that he was still her ‘best friend’. This seems to suggest that they have a certain measure of mutual respect and affection that was not present between the characters in the 1980s film Diner.
The Lost Love Letter of Alex Turner to Alexa Chung
The letter read:
“My mouth hasn’t shut up about you since you kissed it. The idea that you may kiss it again is stuck in my brain, which hasn’t stopped thinking about you since, well, before any kiss.“
“And now the prospect of those kisses seems to wind me like when you slip on the stairs and one of the steps hits you in the middle of the back. The notion of them continuing for what is traditionally terrifying forever excites me to an unfamiliar degree“.
Who did Alex Turner Date After Alexa Chung?
Johanna Bennett (2005-2007)
Prior to Alexa Chung, the other woman with whom Turner was most publicly associated was the musician Johanna Bennett (of Totalizer), whom he dated for a number of years before co-writing on her band’s songs – notably the Arctic Monkeys’ hit single ‘Fluorescent Adolescent’ (2007), which is not a love song to his ex, but still a semi-fictional intrusion into his former relationship. Bennett has since married the Kings of Leon guitarist Matthew Followill.
Alexa Chung (2007-2011)
Four years of Alex Turner and Alexa Chung looking like the most perfect indie music power couple of all time, is 10 years officially over It is a legacy that has endured in the minds of many.
Arielle Vandenberg (2011-2014)
The American multihyphenate Arielle Vandenberg launched on Vine (where she was a star), before transitioning to TV – she appeared in CSI: Miami, the Fox series Bones and the CBS sitcom How I Met Your Mother – and is now a ubiquitous host, notably of Love Island (U.S.)
When Arielle started dating Alex Turner, the lead singer of The Arctic Monkeys, it expanded her fame, as she starred in the music video for the song R U Mine? She split with Turner and subsequently dated the actor Will Arnett before finding love with another Vine star, Matt Cutshall, whom she’s been engaged to since 2019. According to LAD Bible, Arrietty might also have inspired the song ‘Arabella’ on the album AM.
Taylor Bagley (2015-2018)
Arielle was followed by another American model, Taylor Bagley, with whom Turner was in a relationship from 2015 to 2018, and together they adopted a dog named Scooter, whom they nicknamed Tootus.
The couple even got each other’s names tattooed on their arms. But after the couple split in 2018, Taylor added a gravestone and ‘RIP’ above Alex’s name, in a move that added some bitter to her once sweet gesture. Ouch!
Louise Verneuil (2018-present)
It’s a relationship he has kept out of the public eye since 2018, when the French musician Louise Verneuil was first spotted attending Arctic Monkeys shows on the band’s ‘Tranquility Base Hotel Casino’ tour. Verneuil is said to be the inspiration behind Turner’s move to France in 2020, after first spending time there, and his decision to move out of LA, apparently splitting his time between London and Paris.
See below for a selection of Arctic Monkeys songs inspired by Alex Turner’s past relationships
