When Luke Littler arrived at Alexandra Palace as a 66/1 outsider for his World Championship debut, barely anyone outside the darts world had heard of him. By the time he left — as runner-up to Luke Humphries in one of the most talked-about finals in years — his life had changed beyond all recognition. And nobody watched that transformation more closely than his best friend.
Eleanor Cairns, the 19-year-old Women’s World Darts Champion nicknamed ‘Miss Dynamite’, has spoken candidly about what it was like to witness Littler’s extraordinary breakthrough from close quarters — and what she expects from him now that the entire country knows his name.
The pair met at the St Helens Darts Academy after Littler joined at the age of eight and have remained close friends ever since. Cairns told the BBC she was in regular contact with Littler throughout his run, describing the experience as one of constant, escalating disbelief. “So we were in contact throughout the whole competition really, just checking up on each other,” she said. “It was quite complete shock really every time he won a game.”
The shock was understandable. Littler had arrived at Alexandra Palace ranked 164th in the world and left having beaten former champions including his childhood idol Raymond van Barneveld, reaching the final before eventually losing to then-world number one Luke Humphries. Before the tournament he had a humble 4,000 Instagram followers. By the end, that number had exploded to over 900,000.
Cairns, a women’s world champion herself, posted a TikTok video documenting Littler’s journey, including a picture of him wearing bunny ears. She told Sky Sports: “It’s been incredible.”
Despite the overnight transformation in his public profile, Cairns insisted the person she knew remained the same underneath it all. She predicted he would continue to be the ‘chilled’ teenager he was before his new-found fame, saying the Warrington thrower would keep his feet on the ground no matter what success came his way.
Littler himself acknowledged how dramatically his world had shifted. “My life’s changed and my family’s life has changed and I’m grateful for the opportunities I’m getting,” he said, before heading to Bahrain for his first professional PDC World Series event. The scale of that change was clear to everyone around him. Gary Anderson, the two-time world champion, had spotted the warning signs during the tournament itself, saying: “I’ve been downstairs and he’s got cameras, Zoom calls, meetings… Let the boy play darts.”
It was a sentiment that spoke to the double-edged nature of Littler’s breakthrough. The ability, the instincts and the nerve were always there — but managing what comes with being the most talked-about teenager in British sport was a different challenge entirely.
Two years on, the evidence suggests Cairns’ prediction has proved right. Littler went on to win his maiden World Championship in January 2025, defeating Michael van Gerwen 7-3 in the final to become the youngest world champion in darts history. He retained the title in January 2026 with a 7-1 demolition of Gian van Veen, taking home £1 million in the process. He has won the Premier League, the UK Open, the World Matchplay, the Grand Slam, the World Grand Prix and a host of other majors, and is currently the number one ranked player in the world. He still plays Xbox, still eats kebabs, and by all accounts still checks in with his old friends from the academy.
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