Model Jodie Kidd has told how she has found love again after splitting from the father of her son.

The 35-year-old has now formed a bond with Army officer-turned-model and author David Blakeley after they met over lunch.

And in an interview with Hello! magazine, she told how her relationship with Argentinian polo player Andrea Vianini, 49, had simply "fizzled out" as they found themselves spending lengthy spells apart.

Jodie and David - also 35 - have just returned from a holiday at her family home in Barbados.

"It's been absolutely brilliant," she said. "We're very much in tune and share many of the same interests, which is lovely."

Jodie, who is something of an action woman, says she has more than met her match in David, who spent three years as second in command of one of the Army's smallest and most secretive elite units, 16 Air Assault Brigade's Pathfinder Platoon.

His 2012 book, Pathfinder: A Special Forces Mission Behind Enemy Lines, described how he and his eight men were abandoned behind enemy lines in Iraq and fought their way back to safety despite repeated ambushes.

The pair met over lunch after being introduced by Jodie's cousin.

Former Strictly Come Dancing contestant Jodie has a son Indio, two, from her relationship with Andrea, and was previously married to internet entrepreneur Aidan Butler.

She said she was struck by how "super nice, super down to earth and cool" David was when they met at the lunch.

"I didn't expect anything but we certainly hit it off very quickly," she said.

David said: "I absolutely feel it is something extremely special and unique and irreplaceable with Jodie."