Sam Thompson's brother-in-law, Ryan Libbey, has given the star some words of wisdom following his split from Zara McDermott . The radio star and Love Island's Zara split in December after five years together. Zara has since been spotted on a cosy date with Louis Tomlinson. The duo were pictured enjoying a meal and cocktails at a hotel restaurant in Suffolk. Meanwhile, Sam discussed his breakup on his Staying Relevant podcast with dating expert Paul C Brunson. During their chat, Sam asked Paul how to handle 'being given the boot' and said fans noticed how he had 'sadness behind his eyes'. "I went through a breakup, and everyone keeps saying they can see the sadness behind the eyes," Sam said. Answering the I'm A Celeb star's question, Paul said: "This is a tough one, and this is a deep one. The first thing is that you have to identify the emotion and sit in it," to which Sam cut in to add: "Horrible." Paul wasn't the only one to give Sam advice. His sister Louise Thompson's fiancé, Ryan, told him to face the heartbreak rather than try to "outrun it". On Ryan and Louise's podcast, He Said She Said, Ryan said: "We were talking about all sorts of stuff, from things that have happened over the past few years, some stuff super current and we got onto the subject of forms of therapy - which we've done different forms, both him and I. "He's very much like you [Louise] in that sense that you feel like you need to be busy all the time to keep your mind preoccupied with stuff and keep busy. That's kind of your default as Thompsons. But that's not sustainable, you can't outrun things, I really believe that you can't outrun things. "If you're actively trying to stay busy to avoid something, you're never gonna win that race, it's always gonna catch up with you at some point because something will slow you up." Zara was recently spotted with One Direction star Louis at a hotel restaurant. The guest who snapped the pictures of the two stars tucking into their £100 meal remarked how the pair looked like they were "having a great time" as they touched hands across the table. They noted how "Zara had a few cocktails" and "Louis was really making her giggle" as they spoke for ages in the swanky venue. Rumours started about a potential romance between the pair a few weeks back, when eagle eyed fans noted that they followed each other on social media and Louis' sisters Lottie, Daisy and Phoebe all followed the documentary maker and Strictly star on Instagram . She also follows them all back. Meanwhile, friends of Zara's are said to be unhappy about Sam's recent digs as they can't understand why he 'can't let Zara move on'. One friend of Zara's has claimed Sam is a "loose cannon" and added they found his comments about the split "pathetic". They added: "It feels like it always has to be about him". Sam and Zara were together for five years and suffered a rocky patch in their relationship when Zara cheated on Sam with an X Factor boss during her time on the show, The X Factor: Celebrity. The pair moved past Zara's infidelity after she made a tearful apology on Made In Chelsea, in scenes which went viral. The pair moved in together in Sam's Chelsea pad, which is next to his sister's house. And things seemed blissful as they would make funny social media videos together alongside TOWIE star Pete. But, over Christmas , the pair called it quits. Follow Mirror Celebs on TikTok , Snapchat , Instagram , Twitter , Facebook , YouTube and Threads .