Armie Hammer Dating a Dental Hygienist on Cayman Islands amid Rape Accusation: ‘They Seem Happy’

Phillip Faraone/Getty Armie Hammer

Armie Hammer is dating someone new while staying in the Cayman Islands, a source tells PEOPLE.

The Call Me By Your Name actor, 34, has been spending time with a local from the island since earlier this year, according to the source. The new relationship comes as Hammer, 34, faces rape allegations stemming from a 2017 incident with a former partner.

“He is dating a dental hygienist on the island,” the source says. “They were recently on a ‘staycation’ out East, the other side of the island from where they live.”

“They seem happy and comfortable with each other,” the source adds. “They seem to have lots of friends and she introduces him to any friends who haven’t met him before when they are out.”

RELATED: Armie Hammer Seen for the First Time Since Rape Allegation in the Cayman Islands

The Cayman Islands is where Hammer’s estranged wife, Elizabeth Chambers, has been residing with their son Ford, 4, and daughter Harper, 6, for the past year, amid the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic.

Hammer was recently photographed on the island for the first time in months. He was seen sporting a noticeably shorter, buzzed haircut, wearing a white graphic T-shirt and khaki shorts.

The sightings come after Effie, the 24-year-old woman behind the Instagram account House of Effie that first anonymously shared allegations against Hammer, accused him of sexual assault in a four-hour incident that she said occurred in 2017.

In March, she appeared in a press conference alongside her attorney Gloria Allred and accused The Social Network actor of rape and physical abuse.

Shortly after the press conference, the Los Angeles Police Department confirmed the actor was being investigated in a sexual-assault case that was opened on Feb. 3.

Hammer — who has been married to Chambers, 38, since 2010, and announced his separation from her last summer — has denied the allegations.

In a statement provided to PEOPLE, Hammer’s lawyer denied the rape allegation and maintained that his relationship with Effie was “completely consensual, discussed and agreed upon in advance, and mutually participatory.”

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RELATED: Armie Hammer Accused of Rape ‘and Other Acts of Violence’ by Woman Behind First Allegations Against Him

CBS Los Angeles; Getty

Last month, Hammer also announced the news that he would not return to Broadway. (He had been set to be in the cast of Tracy Letts’ The Minutes when it was scheduled to debut last March, but the COVID-19 shutdown threw a wrench in the schedule. It is set to resume for the 2021-2022 Broadway season. The play first opened in 2017, and Hammer had been in previews early last year at the Cort Theater.)

Earlier that week, Hammer was dropped from his last film project, the upcoming thriller Billion Dollar Spy. The actor previously departed Shotgun Wedding with Jennifer Lopez and the Watergate series Gaslit starring Julia Roberts and Sean Penn. Hammer has also been dropped by his talent agency and longtime publicist.

If you or someone you know has been sexually assaulted, please contact the National Sexual Assault Hotline at 1-800-656-HOPE (4673) or go to rainn.org.

If you or someone you know has been a victim of sexual abuse, text “STRENGTH” to the Crisis Text Line at 741-741 to be connected to a certified crisis counselor.

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