Page 83 - Cosmopolitan - UK (April 2020)

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Things are (she also works in the field and has a degree in psychology
looking up and a master’s in criminal law). She certainly has a way
if you live in
Not tingham of eking out personal details – when I listen to our
conversation on my Dictaphone a few days later, I
realise it took just 10 minutes for me to let her in on
some extremely personal details about my own life.
This is a huge part of her job. I’d imagined I’d spend
the day rifling through profiles of people on a computer,
pairing them together. But that’s not how it works.
Molloy gets to know people quickly, her client base is
made up of applications from the website, referrals and
those who she actively seeks. Berkeley International
tailors a package for each client, depending on their
specific needs – for those willing to spend the big bucks,

Molloy or one of her 20 global “ambassadors” will fly all
across the world looking for their chosen match. “So I
could ask you to find me Jack O’Connell and you could?”
I ask, wondering if, for this feature (and my career), my
husband might let me go on a date with him. “You have
to be realistic,” Molloy says, dashing my hopes… but
maybe saving my marriage. “We may not have that sort
of person, or they may not be interested in you. But
you could say,‘I want to meet someone in LA in the
film industry,’ and we could set that up for you.”
Once in LA or New York (or wherever you need
her), Molloy will get herself into the right parties and
“network” “We once had a client
.
“YOU COULD SAY, who really wanted to meet a
doctor from Harvard,” she tells me.
“We flew out [to the US] and, for
‘I WANT TO MEET weeks, went to all the socials and

set her up with 16 or so people.
SOMEONE IN LA,’ AND Naturally, I can say to someone,
400% between 2014 and 2018 ‘Are you in a relationship?’ and
†
and for matchmakers like WE’D SET THAT UP” find out, then hand them a card.”
Molloy, business is thriving. Before taking anyone on as
But what can we learn from a a client, there’s a brief phone
woman who charges upwards of £15,000 for consultation in which it’s decided if they’re “suitable”

her services? Does she really know the secret to finding (more on that later), and then it’s a full-on interview.
love in a world so reliant on algorithms? I decided to This takes place in clients’ homes, or in the Berkeley
go back to that old ambition of mine, and become International offices, where we head next to grill Amy
a professional matchmaker to find out. Grier, Cosmopolitan’s executive editor (and, not-as-
awkward-as-it-sounds, my boss). We’re putting her on
A HOT FRONT Berkeley’s books so I can see how it works. I’m jealous
“It’s all coming back now – bespoke, hand-holding – Molloy is highly secretive as to who she looks after, but
dating,” says Molloy, smearing butter on toast, talking it’s a mixture of lawyers, business owners and celebrities…
to me and peering at her email inbox all at the same one client even hosts his dates on his private jet.
time. It’s a few days later and we’re at Home House, a Over glasses of fizzy water, Molloy fires questions at
private members’ club in London. Despite having nine Amy, in a process that’s more like a very intense job
offices globally (and living in Cannes herself), Irish interview. Every now and then she shuts her eyes, as if
Molloy works, it seems, wherever there will be eligible mentally scrolling through faces in her head. “You’re
singles. She blanches at the idea of being called a always thinking of your clients,” she confirms later. “The
“matchmaker”; she’d prefer “relationship psychologist” minute someone walks in the room I have an idea in ›

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