Looking Back: When Luke Littler Told Fans to Leave Eloise Alone
Go back to July 2024.
Luke Littler was still 17, already a household name after that run to the World Championship final a few months earlier, and the papers had just reported that he and Eloise Milburn had split.
The story landed hard because fans had watched their relationship play out in public. They met on the Development Tour in Leicester in August 2023. Eloise was there at Alexandra Palace while he reached the final and lost 7-4 to Luke Humphries. She was there again when he won the Premier League at the O2. For a lot of supporters, they were part of the early Luke Littler story.
Then The Sun reported the relationship was over after about 10 months. A source at the time said his schedule had made it increasingly difficult to spend quality time together, that calling time seemed the only way forward, and that there was no bad blood. Eloise, the source said, was supportive of his career.
That should have been the end of it. It wasn’t.
Once the reports circulated, Eloise started getting abuse online. People piled in and blamed her. That is when Littler stepped in.
He posted on Instagram:
“Everyone needs to stop sending hate towards Eloise saying it’s her fault and this and that, I myself split up with Eloise and everyone just needs [to] give us some time, no need for everyone to message her and give her grief.”
That was the line that mattered. He did not hide from it. He said he ended it. He asked for space. And he told his own fans to leave her alone.
Looking back, the moment says as much about the cost of sudden fame as it does about a teenage relationship that did not last. Littler had gone from Development Tour kid to global name in a matter of months. The calendar filled up. The spotlight never switched off. A private split became public property overnight, and the person standing next to him took the hits.
Some fans respected him for owning it and shutting the trolls down. Others treated the whole thing as gossip and kept going. Both reactions were visible at the time. What has aged well is the message itself. It was short, clear, and protective. In a sport that loves a character and a story, that post felt like a young player drawing a line.
It did not change the oche. He kept winning. The career kept accelerating. But it did show something about how quickly a personal moment can get pulled into the circus around a star, and how a simple request for time can cut through the noise.
Years later, people still bring up that Instagram note when they talk about Littler off the board. Not because the split was unusual. Because he refused to let the internet rewrite who ended it and who deserved the blame.
What do you remember most from that week? The shock of the reports, the pile-on that followed, or the way he shut it down in a few sentences?
Share your memories. That summer still sits in the early chapters of his story.