It could also be that as a "permanent escapee from emotional entanglement" he understood that he couldn't go on like that if he wanted one day a stable relationship and TS just showed at the right moment, being with TS means being forced to be public with your romance and not being in control, likely he knows it won't last and that's great too, fling like feelings and paps to shock himself to go out there again. As for his career, if we want to give him the benefit of the doubt and say he didn't throw his intelligence away, maybe he knew it would look bad and his reputation would take a hit, but decided to prioritize his future love life over his career.

Too corny? Too lenient toward the boy?
Maybe he just read Alain Botton's new book and thought "Well if we all marry the wrong person, I might as well get some bad PR out of it"