Tommy Shelby's 8 Love Interests In Peaky Blinders Explained

Though Tommy and the rest of the Shelby siblings aged throughout Peaky 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. In Peaky 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 businessperson further, and each of them gave him something to regret when their romances came to an end.

8 Grace Burgess

Played By: Anabelle Wallis

The first, and arguably most important, love interest that viewers meet in the run of Peaky Blinders is 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.

Though she was effectively banished, Grace came back to reunite with Tommy at the end of Peaky Blinders season 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 May Carleton at the time. In Peaky Blinders season 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 sometimes hallucinate, Grace, and he always kept a place in his heart reserved for her.

7 May Carleton

Played By: Charlotte Riley

In Peaky Blinders season 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 about what was happening. Despite their budding relationship, Grace's return to Tommy's life proved to be problematic.

May had a different approach to her relationship with Tommy than Grace. 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 eventually married Grace, but May would return in Peaky Blinders season 4 for a brief reunion.

6 Tatiana 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. In Peaky Blinders season 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 the late Grace's perfume.

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 difficult, intense family so she could live with her actual lover in a far-off country.

5 Jessie Eden

Played By: Charlie Murphy

Based on an actual person of the time, Jessie Eden was a Communist organizer and labor reformist who actually started out as Tommy's bitter enemy in Peaky Blinders season 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 more liberal view on politics.

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 they 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 did get under his skin.

4 Lizzie 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, 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 their relationship and took Charles.

Lizzie is often treated terribly by the Shelby family, and particularly Tommy. For example, in Peaky Blinders season 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, doing more than most. 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.

3 Diana Mitford

Played By: Amber Anderson

Tommy's most recent love interest, at least until the Peaky Blinders movie, 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 of Peaky 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.

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.

2 Greta Jurossi

Played By: Unknown

Even before he met Grace, Tommy's life was filled with tragedy. Audiences got a glimpse of just how different he was through the mention of his earliest girlfriends, a woman named Greta Jurossi, whom Jessie Eden brought up in Peaky Blinders season 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, then went off to war after her death.

1 Zelda Chiriklo

Played By: Rebecca Ferguson

One of Tommy's first love interests was actually one of the last ones viewers discovered. As Peaky Blinders season 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 in Peaky Blinders until Peaky Blinders: The Immortal Man, which establishes some of the lore surrounding her and creates a new narrative with her twin sister, Kaulo, also played by Ferguson.