Madeleine West wears a tiny bikini as she kisses new man Maximo Bottaro in Byron Bay

She announced her split from celebrity chef Shannon Bennett in September 2018. 

And it seems Neighbours actress Madeleine West, 39, has finally found happiness again as she was spotted enjoying a date with environmentalist Maximo Bottaro, earlier this month. 

The pair were seen passionately kissing and cuddling in the shallows of a secluded Byron Bay beach.  

Showing off her incredible figure in a tiny black bikini, mother-of-six Madeleine wrapped her arms around Maximo’s neck and drew him in close. 

Muscle-bound Maximo meanwhile wrapped his hands around her petite waist and shoulders during the clinch. 

He displayed his bulging biceps in a button-down vest and completed his look with a pair of black boardshorts. 

After their beach date, Madeleine and Maximo set off for a stroll around Byron Bay’s leafy suburban streets.  

The couple enjoyed a light-hearted conversation while walking arm-in-arm.  

Madeline covered up in a pair of denim shorts, and eventually threw on a plain white T-shirt. 

She wore a pair of flat sandals and carried her belongings in a leather cross-body bag.   

Maximo has been an environmental activist for the past two decades, having previously worked for Greenpeace, one of the largest environmental organisations in the world.

He co-founded his own environmental conservation organisation, ReForest Now, in 2018.

Madeleine has worked with ReForest Now on various projects since January.

Last month, ReForest Now shared a photo to Instagram of Madeleine helping to plant trees, and thanked her for her continued support.

‘Madeline has been supporting ReForest Now through promoting our work and inviting community to our plantings and to contribute to the funding of reforestation,’ the post read. 

Just a year after her split from Shannon, Madeleine said she was unlikely to ever get back together with the father of her six children, whom she had dated between 2005 and 2018.

She told The Kyle and Jackie O Show in October their needs no longer aligned after more than a decade together. 

‘I’m a big believer that everything in life has a season. We change. We evolve,’ she said.

‘At some point we go, ‘Well, I have certain needs I want to have met and you’ve got certain needs and if the two don’t combine and cross in the middle, why fight it and be miserable?’ 

‘I don’t think that’s fair to the children either to see two parents that are constantly across purposes.’  

She brushed off questions about a potential ‘love interest’ at the time and joked that she was living ‘like a monk’. 

Madeleine previously told Stellar magazine in 2018 that she and Shannon were ‘striving to reconnect as friends and parents’.

She said that having six children and ‘two high-pressure careers’ had put a strain on their relationship.

The former couple, who never married despite being together for 13 years, share six children: Phoenix, Hendrix, Xascha, Xanthe, Xahlia and Margaux.

Despite their break-up, they relocated with their children to Byron Bay last year after selling their marital home in Toorak, Melbourne, for $16million.