Jilly Cooper says she knows why young people aren't having sex

Young people today aren't having sex because they're to busy running, according to racy writer Dame Jilly Cooper.

Speaking to the Observer ahead of the Disney+ adaptation of her famous novel, Rivals, Jilly theorised that young people aren't bonking because they're too busy 'jogging miles and miles and miles'. 

An adaptation of the hit 1988 bonkbuster - famed for its frequent steamy scenes - will premiere on Disney+ in October, starring Aidan Turner, David Tennant and Emily Atack.

During an interview with the upcoming Rivals star, David Tennant, ahead of the shows premiere, the Scottish actor asked Jilly what she believed was the most 'powerful pull on human nature'.

Jilly, who has sold 11 million books in the UK alone, replied: 'If you're passionately in love, it would be sex, wouldn't it? It really would. But I think sex less now.

Unlike the characters in the 80s Rutshire Chronicles series - who find manage to have an endless bounty of time for steaming-up-the-windows sex - according to the Jilly Cooper, those of us in the real world are comparatively lacklustre lovers.

'People are all going jogging aren't they? Running. Everybody runs miles and miles and miles and I don't think there is so much much sex now.'

She added: 'I'm convinced the reason people aren't having as much sex is because everybody takes so much exercise,' she said. 'Everybody is running nowadays, and if they're not, they're going to the gym. And how can you possibly have sex when you're so exhausted?'

With romance on the backburner, the novelist then concluded that that most powerful pull is money.

She claimed that fears in the geopolitical landscape are the driver behind why humans are increasingly being pulled towards money.  

Running clubs in Britain have been on the rise, with Gen Z increasingly ditching boozing and bonking for jogging.

The trend has also been marked by a recent explosion in interest with marathon running, with more than a four fold increase in people applying to take on the 26.2 mile trek. 

Nearly 580,000 people signed up for the London marathon, a whopping increase on the 120,000 the previous year.

Combining running with romance, a recent upsurge in young people using sports as a way to find love has even led Tinder to capitalise on the trend.

Earlier this year, the dating app launched SoleMates Run Clubs, a series of free runs in London over the summer.

The running clubs were launched based on the growing popularity of activity-based dating with 'running' trending as one of the top Tinder profile tagged Interests.

The surge in combining fitness with love led some to describe 'running clubs as the new dating apps'. 

Jilly Cooper is well known for her smutty romance novels. The novelist has previously spoken candidly about her younger years, spent chasing romance rather than pavements.

Reflecting on her teenage years in a BBC documentary, Jilly recalled: 'The only thing I was ever interested in was men.' 

'Life is quite short of joy and I think sex is heaven.

'I think one should have as much as you can and in books I think you should have quite a lot, too.'

In the upcoming Disney+ adaptation, the streaming service has promised to bring a '2020s lens' to the 1980s classic - a notoriously politically incorrect tale of sex and scandal in the English social elite.

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The story focuses on the tense rivalry between Rupert Campbell-Black (Alex Hassell) and Lord Tony Baddingham (David Tennant).

The racy eight-part series is set to air from October 18 - but many viewers have been left wondering how its themes would be translated for a modern audience.

In an interview with The Times, writer and executive producer Dominic Treadwell-Collins, who has previously worked on EastEnders, has shed light on the much anticipated new TV series.

He said: 'We've been equal opportunities in our nudity. There's a willy for every pair of t***.'

And according to Disney+, Rivals is a 'joyously mischievous rollercoaster ride, steamy in its love stories and packed with larger-than-life characters.' 

The cast includes Poldark heartthrob Aidan, ex-Doctor Who David , Sex Education actress Bella Maclean and Alex Hassell, from BBC fantasy series His Dark Materials.

The book, part of the Rutshire Chronicles, soared to the top of the charts and sold more than a million copies.

The Disney+ series Rivals will be released on October 18 in the UK and internationally, and on Hulu in the United States.