Meet the Rivals cast's famous other halves and the real-life relationships making headlines beyond Rutshire
The stars' real-life romances are just as fascinating as events on screen!
Rivals is currently streaming on Disney+, and the cast’s off-screen love lives are almost as wild as their characters’ on-screen antics!
From scandal, seduction and razor-sharp one-liners to the tangled love lives that kept viewers hooked, Rivals has become one of the most talked-about ensembles on screen.
But while the drama unfolds in front of the cameras, the cast’s real-life relationships are proving just as fascinating. From long-term marriages and low-key romances to famous celebrity pairings, the stars behind the hit series have plenty going on away from the spotlight.
Here’s a closer look at the off-screen partners of the Rivals cast, and the relationships making headlines beyond Rutshire…
Rivals star Aidan Turner married to Succession cast member
Aidan Turner, 42, – who plays Declan O’Hara – married American actress Caitlin FitzGerald, also 42, in August 2020.
She’s famous for her roles in Succession and Masters of Sex. They wed in front of just six people in Italy during the pandemic.
They’re parents to a little boy, whose name or picture they’ve never shared, who was born in January 2022.
Rupert Campbell-Black’s real-life love affair
Rivals’ leading man Alex Hassell, 45, – who plays Rupert Campbell-Black – is married to stage and screen actress Emma King.
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The couple met at the Royal Central School of Speech and Drama and married in 2011. Proving they can mix work and play, the pair starred together in an episode of Netflix’s Cowboy Bebop.
They’re pretty private, but Emma has said of her hunky hubby: “I don’t always know what I’m doing but I know I couldn’t do it without you.”
Married with five kids!
55-year-old David Tennant kept it in the Doctor Who family when he married English actress Georgia Tennant, 41, in 2011. Not only did they meet while filming The Doctor’s Daughter episode in 2008, but she is the daughter of Peter Davison, the fifth Doctor.
The happy couple share four children – Olive (who also plays his daughter in the Disney+ show), Wilfred, Doris and Birdie. He also co-parents her eldest son Ty, from a previous relationship, and adopted him the same year they got married.
She has said of her family of seven: “I like how different they are. It seemed weird that two people can keep creating such a different smorgasbord of humans. And that’s really fascinating.”
Rival star weds Doctor Who actor
Katherine Parkinson, 48, who plays Rivals author Lizzie, met fellow actor Harry Peacock, 47, in 2003 during a theatre workshop. She quipped: “I met my husband doing a workshop based on the book Heart of A Dog by Mikhail Bulgakov. He was the dog.”
They tied the knot six years later in 2009, and appeared together in The Kennedys.
He’s appeared in Changing Ends and Doctor Who, but is perhaps best known for his role in Far From the Madding Crowd. He’s also the son of Trevor Peacock, who played Jim Trott in The Vicar of Dibley.
Away from the spotlight, they share two daughters – Dora, 12 and Gwendolyn, 10.
A very merry Christmas for Rivals star Lisa McGrillis
Rivals cast member Lisa McGrillis, 43. who plays aspiring fashion maven Valerie Jones, met her husband Stuart Martin, 40, at a Christmas party in the National Theatre bar.
Also an actor, he is best known for his roles in Jamestown and Miss Scarlet and The Duke. He also had small roles in Silent Witness and Game of Thrones.
The couple share two children – nine-year-old Josh and Cleo, five.
Rivals cast member Oliver Chris’ off-screen romance
47-year-old actor Oliver Chris – who plays James Vereker – is in a long-term relationship with partner Kate Phillips, 36.
She’s a very familiar face, having appeared in Wolf Hall, Downton Abbey and Peaky Blinders.
The couple are also parents to a daughter. However, while they haven’t shared her name, Kate has revealed that the birth was pretty painful. She quipped that after a day of “extraordinary agony”, she was given an epidural: “How the [bleep] did women do this in the Tudor period?”
Read more: As the cast of Rivals season 2 get their kit off, is it models’ own or did they use body doubles?
