TRUE SHOWMANCE Soap couples who found real love… from Corrie stars’ secret dates to Emmerdale pair’s heartbreaking discovery about kids
One Emmerdale star said meeting his wife was the best thing about his 40 years on the soap
SOAPS are renowned for their sweet and scandalous romances – but it’s not just in scripted storylines where love is blossoming.
A number of our favourite small-screen actors have fallen for co-stars and soapland rivals when the cameras have stopped rolling.
This week Emmerdale newbie Beth Cordingly – who plays Ruby Fox Milligan – revealed she is “in love” with an iconic actor from the same soap.
The 47-year-old has been dating Ian Kelsey, who spent three years in the Dales playing Dave Glover until his character died in a fire, back in 1997.
The couple, who became an item in 2021, first met 20 years ago but married other people before divorcing and bumping into each other many years later.
Beth said she’s “very in love” and happy with Ian, and praised him for being “really supportive” of her joining the soap, admitting it’s helpful he understands the pressures of filming.
Here we take a look at other soap stars who found love with their co-stars.
Laura Norton and Mark Jordan
Laura Norton, 40, met Mark Jordan, 59, who played Kerry and Daz, when he joined Emmerdale back in 2014.
At the time the actor was married to Siobhan Finneran, but when they separated he started dating Laura.
The couple, who got engaged in 2018, told Loose Women they spent a long time deciding whether they should “just stay as friends”.
The couple, who have been together for eight years, have two children – one-year-old Ronnie and Jesse, who is nearly three.
Last year they opened up about their kids’ diagnoses with Usher syndrome – a genetic condition with no cure that affects hearing, reduces the ability to see at night and leads to vision loss in later life.
Laura said it was “heartbreaking” that they had “passed this on to our sons” but they would continue to raise awareness of the condition to “support” and help them.
Jeff Hordley and Zoe Henry
Emmerdale favourites Zoe (Rhona Goskirk), 50, and Jeff (Cain Dingle), 53, met at drama college in 1994 and have been together ever since.
Jeff said it was love at first sight, adding: “I saw Zoe and realised she was the girl for me,” while Zoe has said her hubby in real life “couldn’t be less like a Dingle if he tried”.
The pair, who married in 2003, have two children – Violet and Stan – and live in a stunning Yorkshire home.
They share a love of gardening, and Jeff has said growing their own veg in their allotment has helped his Crohn’s disease.
Zoe previously told The Sun: “Working on the same show as Jeff also helps because if one of us is having a bad day then the other will completely understand.”
Joe Duttine and Sally Carman
Sally Carman and Joe Duttine are married after first meeting on Corrie in 2017.
The couple were first confirmed to be dating in a Sun exclusive back in 2018 when they were snapped holding hands in public.
They got engaged during lockdown and planned to tie the knot at Christmas, but Covid restrictions meant they had to postpone to July 2022.
The 42-year-old, who plays Abi Franklin, has admitted it “would be horrendous” to work on a storyline with Joe, 53, because “he’s too funny”.
Chris Gascoyne and Caroline Harding
Coronation Street’s Chris, 55, who played pub landlord Peter Barlow, married wife Caroline in 2002.
She has played four different roles in rival ITV soap Emmerdale, but switched Yorkshire for Manchester as a doctor on Corrie back in 2020.
They were not her first scenes in Weatherfield; she first appeared as a medic in 2015 for two episodes.
Chris and Caroline, 61, had a daughter called Belle in 2002. She had two children, Pip and Freddie, from her previous marriage to Jason Watkins.
In 2010, Chris said: “If someone had said to me in my twenties that I’d have dated a divorced mum with kids, I would have said ‘No way’.
“But it kind of made me feel closer to her. It was a very real relationship very quickly. I saw this amazing strength in her and I loved her kids Freddie and Pip.”
Rory Douglas Speed and Nadine Mulkerrin
Rory Douglas Speed, 31, and Nadine Mulkerrin, 30, are known for their Hollyoaks alter egos Joel Dexter and Cleo McQueen.
The loved-up pair got engaged on a December 2018 trip to Amsterdam – just over a year after they announced they were dating.
They have two kids – Reggie and Dougie – and enjoyed a luxurious £200-per-night break in Portugal last year.
Lesley Dunlop and Chris Chittell
Yet another couple who hooked up in the Dales are Lesley, 67, and Chris, 75, who play Brenda Hope and Eric Pollard.
They fell for each other long before their characters started up a romance on screen.
Both of their alter egos married other people on the show – Brenda was with Bob while Eric was widowed when Val died – but later started dating.
The couple got wed in real life in 2016. Chris singled out meeting Lesley as his highlight of nearly 40 years on Emmerdale.
Antony Cotton and Peter Eccleston
Sean Tully may have been unlucky in love on the cobbles, but in real life Antony’s met his Prince Charming.
The 48-year-old started dating long-term partner Peter in 2005, after they met when he was working as an assistant props buyer on Corrie.
While they exchanged rings in 2010 as a commitment to each other, they haven’t yet made it down the aisle.
Jane Danson and Robert Beck
Like her on-screen sister, Jane’s character Leanne Battersby did not had an easy ride when it comes to fellas on the Corrie cobbles.
Thankfully the 45-year-old is happily settled with former Brookside star Robert Beck, 53, in real life, whom she met at the British Soap Awards in 1999.
Jane had lusted after Rob long before meeting him in person, having fancied his Brookie character Peter Harrison when she was a teenager!
They wed in 2005 and have two children – Harry, who was born in 2006, and Sam, born in 2009.
Robert recently popped up in Emmerdale as badboy gangster Harry.
Sophie Austen and Shayne Ward
Ex-Corrie star Shayne and former Hollyoaks villain Sophie met through friends, and she gave birth to their daughter Willow in December 2016.
In 2020, the actor, 39, told Lorraine Kelly that they had to postpone their wedding because of the coronavirus pandemic.
Two years later, Sophie revealed the couple had a bit of a surprise when their son, Reign, was born – because they had been told at a pregnancy scan that they were expecting a daughter.
“He came out and Shayne first clocked it,” Sophie, 40, told Hello! magazine.
“Then the doctors came over and said, ‘We’ve got some news.’ I was thinking the worst, that something awful had happened, but they said, ‘You’ve got a baby boy!’ So I felt more relief than anything else.”
Amy-Leigh Hickman and Shaheen Jafargholi
Amy-Leigh and Shaheen, both 27, met in 2016 while both appearing on EastEnders.
While Amy-Leigh’s character Linzi Bragg played Jay Brown’s underage girlfriend, Shaheen’s alter ego Shakil was embroiled in a revenge porn plot following the breakdown of his relationship with Bex Fowler.
The pair were one of the youngest real-life soap couples but were clearly head over heels for each other – judging by the loved-up snaps on social media.
Since leaving the soap, Amy-Leigh has appeared in shows including Our Girl and Netflix drama You, while Shaheen has appeared in Holby City and Casualty.
