Byker Grove co-stars Jill Halfpenny and Ant McPartlin once enjoyed romance away from the cameras.
The 48-year-old actress is a familiar face on our screens, having starred in both Coronation Street and EastEnders before breaking into the West End. In recent years, Jill has played in dark dramas, such as Three Girls and The Long Shadow, and is now part of Channel 5's The Cuckoo.
Gateshead-born Jill portrays lodger Sian, who is taken in by a strapped-for-cash couple - but their initially friendly arrangement doesn't go to plan. As viewers tune in to the new four-part series, the Mirror takes a look at Jill's love life and her early romance with presenter Ant.
Jill revealed she was the one to ask Ant on a cinema date (Press Association Images)
But their romance 'fizzled' as they 'weren't right for each other' (Getty Images)Talented Jill cut her teeth in iconic teen drama Byker Grove alongside the most famous Geordie duo in TV history - Ant and Dec. During a 2016 appearance on This Morning, Jill shared that she had taken the initiative and asked Ant McPartlin out on a date during their teenage years.
Jill revealed: "We went to the cinema together, we went to see The Commitments in real life! I said to him, 'There's a really good film that's come out called The Commitments, do you wanna come?' He was like 'Ah aye, yeah great!'" But it didn't develop into anything serious, with Jill confirming: "It fizzled…. We weren't right for each other!"
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Jill went on to marry fellow actor Craig Conway in 2007. Expressing sheer wedded bliss during an interview with The Northern Echo at the time, Craig, whose work includes The Serpent and Dog Soldiers, declared: "We are the two happiest people in Newcastle today, and it's just great to be back home."
In May 2008, the couple announced they had welcomed their son Harvey Reece. Jill's mum Maureen told Chronicle Live that the proud parents were "over the moon" with their new arrival. But a happy ending ultimately wasn't in store for Jill and Craig who parted ways in 2010 after three years of marriage.
Then in 2017, Jill suffered a terrible loss after her partner Matt Janes suffered a fatal heart attack at the gym aged 43. Opening up in 2019, Jill told the Two Show Podcast that Matt's death had felt like a "double loss" as it bore striking similarities with the death of her dad, Colin, who suffered a heart attack while playing football in 1979.
Jill said: "My grief at losing Matt, my partner, was so brutal and so shocking but then what happened was it brought out all of the grief from my dad as well. It was like dealing with a double loss – a loss I'd never actually dealt with. I just found myself thinking, 'Oh my god, this is unbearable. What am I going to do? I cannot cope. I just want cessation, this feeling to stop'."
- You can catch Jill Halfpenny in The Cuckoo at 9pm tonight on Channel 5.
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