Warning! This article contains SPOILERS for Peaky Blinders season 6.Tommy Shelby (Cillian Murphy) romanced several women throughoutPeaky Blinders, and all eight of them had a major effect on him. Tommy’s girlfriends and wives had a huge effect on bothPeaky Blindersand theShelby family tree. Some of them helped with both his gang and the Shelby Company Limited, some of them were mysterious and tragic parts of his past, and others were real historical figures inPeaky Blinders' true story. All of them, however, added romance and drama toPeaky Blinders, and all of them were fascinating characters in their own right who are worthy of learning more about.
Though Tommy and the rest of theShelby siblings aged throughoutPeaky Blinders, his taste in women didn’t. Tommy always had a weak spot for refined, elegant, and attractive ladies, and he had more than a bit of success in romancing them. InPeaky Blinders' six seasons, Tommy found six new love interests, and he also revealed two other women he loved from before the beginning of the series. Each of Tommy’s love interests helped develop the enigmatic gangster and ruthless business person further, and each of them gave him something to regret.
8Grace Burgess
Played By: Anabelle Wallis
The first, and arguably most important, love interest viewers meet inPeaky Blindersis Grace Burgess. Tommy first met Grace while she was working as an undercover spy for Inspector Campbell (Sam Neill), and while he was suffering from severe post-traumatic stress disorder from his service in World War I.Campbell had ordered Grace to infiltrate the Peaky Blinders by working as a barmaid at the Garrison, but in the process of her investigation, she and Tommy fell in love. Her feelings were so strong that she eventually betrayed Campbell and helped Tommy escape the law.
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Though she was effectively banished from the Peaky Blinders in season 1, Grace came back to reunite with Tommy at the end ofPeaky Blindersseason 2.Grace was the love of Tommy’s life, and she was also pregnant with Tommy’s child, Charles, so he chose to be with her over his love interest at the time, May Carleton. InPeaky Blindersseason 3, Grace and Tommy get married, though their marriage only lasted a short while before Grace was killed by Vincente Changretta. After her death, however, Tommy continued to dream of and even hallucinate Grace, and he always kept a place in his heart reserved for her.
7May Carleton
Played By: Charlotte Riley
InPeaky Blindersseason 2, before reuniting with Grace, Tommy Shelby meets May Carleton, a horse trainer and wealthy widow. The two first saw each other from afar at a horse auction, where May offered to train the horse Tommy had purchased, which he had named “Grace’s Secret.“As she continued to train the horse, May and Tommy grew increasingly close, to the point that she invited him to stay the night at her manor despite the threat of her servants spreading rumors. Despite their budding relationship, Grace’s return to Tommy’s life proved to be a problem.
After Tommy told her about Grace and his love for her, May assured him that she would “win” him, and even asked him to stop behaving like a gentleman and start behaving like a gangster with her.
May actually had a very different approach to her relationship with Tommy than Grace did. After Tommy told her about Grace and his love for her, May assured him that she would “win” him, and even asked him to stop behaving like a gentleman and start behaving like a gangster with her.She even fought with Grace, told her that she was going to win Tommy’s heart by helping him take over the horse tracks, and that she wanted him so she could “feel more alive.“Tommy ended up marrying Grace, but May would return inPeaky Blindersseason 4 for a brief reunion.
6Tatiana Petrovna
Played By: Gaite Jansen
May Carleton hit the nail on the head when she said that Tommy couldn’t separate love and business, and Tatiana Petrovna proved it. InPeaky Blindersseason 3, Tatiana, a Russian princess who was living in England after the Russian Revolution, approached Tommy to have him steal her family jewels. While plotting the heist, Tatiana seduced Tommy and went on a wild rampage through his mansion, playing Russian roulette and terrorizing the maids.She was trying to encourage Tommy to use his power more freely, and the two ended up having sex after Tatiana put on Grace’s perfume.
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Tatiana is one of Tommy’s more unique love interests in the show, as it’s not entirely clear what he felt for her.As Polly (Helen McCrory) pointed out, Tommy was grieving Grace’s death at the time, and he likely used Tatiana as a way to take his mind off his sadness. Tommy also asserted that he was merely using Tatiana to get intelligence about her family’s jewels. Tatiana’s intentions are much clearer: she neither loved nor cared for Tommy, and only wanted to escape her family so she could live with her actual lover in a far-off country.
5Jessie Eden
Played By: Charlie Murphy
Jessie Eden was a Communist organizer and labor reformist who actually started out as Tommy’s bitter enemy inPeaky Blindersseason 4. She first approached Tommy through his legal company, the Shelby Company Limited, demanding that his female employees be paid equally to his male employees. The two went back and forth in labor disputes, and their rivalry actually grew quite brutal as they both unearthed painful lost loves from each other’s pasts. Eventually, however, Tommy and Jessie made love, and Tommy even agreed to take Jessie’s view on politics.
Jessie Eden was a real figure in English history. As inPeaky Blinders, she was a Communist organizer and labor activist.
Unfortunately for Jessie, much of her romantic relationship with Tommy seems to have been a ruse.Tommy was spying on Jessie and providing information about the Communist party to Ben Younger, and he only told her he would become a Communist to find the name of the leader of her cell. After Tommy was elected to Parliament in the Labour Party, Jessie discovered his ruse, and the two seem to have had a massive falling out over it. It’s not entirely clear how much of Tommy’s relationship with Jessie was just an act, however, as she had a particular talent for getting under his skin.
4Lizzie Stark
Played By: Natasha O’Keeffe
After his brief affair with Jessie Eden, Tommy found his second wife in Lizzie Stark. Lizzie is by far Tommy’s longest-lasting love interest, as he had a particular fondness for her while she was working as a prostitute inPeaky Blindersseason 1, even going as far as to say that she saved his heart from breaking some nights. Lizzie’s non-romantic relationship with Tommy also got her a position in the Shelby Company Limited.After she gave birth to Tommy’s daughter Ruby Shelby, Lizzie married Tommy. Their marriage was fraught with problems, however, and it ultimately ended when she left him and took Charles.
Despite her mistreatment, Lizzie deeply cared for Tommy; she treated Grace’s son, Charles, as her own, helped Tommy work through his mental health issues, and more.
Lizzie is often treated terribly by the Shelby family, and particularly Tommy. For example, inPeaky Blindersseason 2, Tommy forced Lizzie to go back to prostitution to trap Campbell. Once they were married, Tommy frequently cheated on Lizzie, which she was keenly aware of.Despite her mistreatment, Lizzie deeply cared for Tommy; she treated Grace’s son, Charles, as her own, helped Tommy work through his mental health issues, and more. Tommy also had a misshapen love for Lizzie, as he was fiercely protective and possessive of her, especially after he learned that she slept with Oswald Mosley.
3Diana Mitford
Played By: Amber Anderson
Tommy’s most recent love interest, at least until thePeaky Blindersmovie, was Diana Mitford. Diana was the mistress and eventual wife of Oswald Mosley, the fascist politician and Tommy’s main rival in the latest seasons ofPeaky Blinders. As soon as Tommy saw Diana, he was smitten with her. Diana proved to be quite a capable adversary, though, as she was just as involved in the fascist agenda as Mosley was.Eventually, Diana forced Tommy to show his devotion to the fascist cause by sleeping with her. Diana was actually a major factor in Lizzie’s decision to leave Tommy.
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As is usually the case with Tommy Shelby, however, his business interests came before his personal life.When Mosley and Diana announced their marriage, Mosley threatened to kill Tommy if he so much as looked at his wife in the future. Given Diana’s importance to Mosley’s plans and the fact that Tommy has yet to deal with him permanently, it’s safe to assume he’ll have at least one more run-in with Diana in the future.
2Greta Jurossi
Played By: Unknown
Even before he met Grace, Tommy’s love life was filled with tragedy.Audiences got a glimpse of just how different he was through the mention of one of his earliest girlfriends, a woman named Greta Jurossi, whom Jessie Eden brought up inPeaky Blindersseason 4. Greta’s family was Italian and disapproved of their daughter dating a Romani boy, but Tommy’s charm and manners won them over. They were happy together, until Greta came down with consumption and died at age 19. Tommy reportedly sat at her bedside holding her hand for three months, and he went off to war shortly after her death.
1Zelda
Played By: Unseen
One of Tommy’s first love interests was actually one of the last ones viewers discovered.AsPeaky Blindersseason 6 revealed, before he went to fight in WWI, Tommy had a brief but passionate affair with a Romani woman named Zelda. Zelda’s father shot Tommy for having sex with his daughter, but their momentary relationship ended up producing an illegitimate son. That son, Erasmus “Duke” Shelby (Conrad Khan), would join the Shelby family when he was 19 years old, in 1934. Zelda died after being denied a hospital bed before Tommy could reunite with her, and not much is known about her inPeaky Blinders.
