After falling for her former Strictly dance partner Pasha Kovalev, Rachel Riley knows you can find love in the most unexpected places and she says there's a mathematical formula for romance.

The maths whizz started dating Pasha after splitting from her husband and fellow Oxford University student Jamie Gilbert in 2013.

She's now teamed up with matchmaking website eHarmony to work out the odds of finding that special someone, and how to boost your chances.

Here, Rachel reveals what the stats show - and whether she believes in soulmates...

What are the odds of finding love?

"My favourite part of maths is applied maths, and I like seeing how it's used in real life to make people's lives better. There's no better way of improving someone's life than finding love.

"There's so much probability and science behind matchmaking, especially online at the moment. eHarmony have found that if you leave it to fate, you've got a 1 in 562 chance of finding love. But they've also found that there are things you can do to improve your chances of love."

How can you improve your chances?

"Things like making your network bigger - so the more people you get to meet, the more chance you have of finding somebody, whether that's going to the gym or having drinks with work mates and meeting their friends."

Is it easier to find love now the internet can do the hard work for you?

"Yeah, it's interesting. The thing I've found surprising in the research is that it's easier, and you've got more chance of finding love the older you get. The younger people, [even though] they're going out and meeting each other, had the longest odds.

I think it's because 18 to 24-year-olds don't date younger people, so they're limiting that age range they're choosing from - they've got a smaller pool of people. Whereas you're a little more open to a wider age range as you get older, and maybe you can travel a bit more."

Have you ever found it difficult to find love?

"Well, I'm kind of a serial monogamist. I've not been in 60 different relationships, but then I've been lucky at the right time.

If you'd have asked me as a teenager what kind of person I would end up with, being an Essex girl, maths geek who likes football, I never would've said a Russian ballroom dancer from Strictly! It's a good job really that I didn't have a checklist, because he'd have been written off before I even got to meet him!"

Do you believe in soulmates?

"I don't really believe in soul mates. I remember having a chat with Pasha when we were dancing and asking, 'What kind of music do you like?' When he said 'classical', I was thinking, 'Oh my God, this is going to be a long couple of months!'

"I never would've realised, but he's never seen the programmes I grew up with, like Friends or Father Ted, and he doesn't drink Pimm's as second nature. The differences aren't necessarily a bad thing though. Sometimes you meet people naturally and sometimes you need a little bit of help."

You said Pasha wouldn't have been your type when you were a teenager. Do you think we should be less picky?

"I think it helps to broaden your net to start with, so things you're being picky about that you think are non-negotiable might not be the right things to be picky about."

Have you ever played matchmaker for friends?

"On a couple of dates. That's the thing isn't it, when you've got a friend [looking for love] and you're a little bit older, you run out of a pool of people.

You want to be like Davina McCall on Streetmate, but you can't just walk up to a bloke in the street and say, 'Excuse me, have you got a girlfriend?' because it's a bit weird. I guess online takes away all that weird, awkward, embarrassing [stuff], but yeah, I've had a go."

What are you up to at the moment?

"I'm enjoying myself and I'm happy. We've just gone away for the summer. We had a great time travelling, our parents got together and I'm learning Russian. I need to learn better Russian, that's definitely on the list. I really enjoy it, it's quite mathematical and his mum doesn't speak English."

Have things changed for you since turning 30?

"I don't think so. I went to LA the other week and when I got there, the passport officer asked me if my parents knew I was there, so I'm still being mistaken for a teenager half the time! I guess that's another thing, people might underestimate you and then actually you've got a 31-year-old with a brain, so I guess it always works in your favour if you get underestimated. But no, I haven't noticed. I don't think age matters."

Do you feel more confident in yourself?

"Yeah, I think the more experience you've got, the less you worry about things. Everyone thinks a certain way, you know, you must get married, you must do this, you must do that. No! I think if it suits you - great, if it doesn't - don't worry about it."