Matthew Wolfenden shares loved-up photo with girlfriend at former co-star’s wedding two years after Charley Webb split

He's very happy with partner Heather
Jade Brown
By Jade Brown

Former Emmerdale star Matthew Wolfenden has shared a rare photo with girlfriend Heather following his split from Charley Webb in 2023.

The actor, who starred as David Metcalfe in Emmerdale, and partner Heather Scott-Martin attended Matthew’s former co-star Isabel Hodgins’ wedding together.

It comes nearly two years after Matthew and Charley announced their split after five years of marriage.

Matthew Wolfenden shares photo of girlfriend

Actor Matthew was one of many Emmerdale stars to attend the wedding of Isabel Hodgins, who stars as Victoria Sugden on the soap.

He’s now taken to Instagram to share a photo of him and girlfriend Heather from the big day. “LOVE this picture of my girl and me at @isabelhodgins wedding. We had THE BEST TIME!,” he wrote in the caption.

Writing in the comments section, Isabel replied: “Loved having you both there.” Fans were equally happy, with many writing how pleased they were that Matthew has found happiness with the dance teacher.

“Nice to see you happy,” wrote one fan, while a second added: “Couple goals.”

David Metcalfe actor Matthew previously revealed that he met Heather while starring in Elf the Musical. “Me and Charley had been separated for a few months and then Heather was the dance captain on Elf,” he told The Sun.

“She’d also recently separated from her long-term parter roughly the same time me and Charley had separated so we kind of had this common bond. It was almost like it was meant to be, that we found each other.”

Matthew and former co-star Charley, who starred as Debbie Dingle, confirmed their split in November 2023. A short statement at the time said: “It is with love and respect that Matthew and I have decided to separate. We remain friends and our priority is the love for our children. For their sake we would appreciate privacy at this time.”

The former couple began dating in 2007 after meeting on the set of Emmerdale. They became engaged in 2009, but did not marry until 2018. They also share three children together – Buster, Bowie and Ace.

David Metcalfe, aka Matthew Wolfenden looks teary
Matthew left Emmerdale after 17 years as David (Credit: ITV)

Why Matthew left Emmerdale

Matthew played David in Emmerdale between 2006 and 2023. Recently speaking about his reason for leaving, he revealed he’d been desperate to play Buddy in the musical Elf. However, Emmerdale prohibits its stars from doing panto.

Speaking to The Sun in February, he said: “The problem is they don’t let people out at Christmas to do panto, because their reasoning is ‘if we let one person out, we’ve got to open it up to everyone and we could lose half our cast at Christmas’.

“Not that Elf was a pantomime. It was a big West End musical, but it was over panto season. They said ‘if we set a precedence to let you out for three months to do that we’ve got to let other people out too.’ And I absolutely understood that.

Ultimately, with his contract coming to an end, he decided to take the plunge, even if it was a ‘little crazy.’

Following on from his starring role in Elf, Matthew starred in an episode of The Good Ship Murder on Channel 5. He also started a podcast with another former co-star, Roxy Shahidi, who played Leyla Harding.

The podcast, titled Celebrity Side Hustles sees them interview former colleagues and current friends and ask them to share their side hustles.

Read more: Who’s leaving Emmerdale? All the cast exits, arrivals and returns

Emmerdale usually airs weeknights on ITV at 7.30pm, with an early release on ITVX at 7am.

Classic Emmerdale usually airs every weekday on ITV3 at 6am and 6.30am, plus 1.40pm and 2.10pm.

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