Phill Whittaker has recently established himself as a key character in Coronation Street
The character is played by Jamie Kenna, who first joined the cast in 2021. Phill arrived on the Cobbles when Fiz Stape and Tyrone Dobbs' relationship was on the rocks.
He quickly hit it off with the character, played by Jennie McAlpine, and their romance continued to go from strength to strength. The two were set to get married this week, but the ceremony was rocked with drama when the registrar was cancelled and Tyrone presented the bride with a pair of Vera’s vintage earrings.
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Away from the Cobbles, Jamie's love life is fortunately less complicated than his on-screen counterpart's. He is happily married to Claire Marlowe and the two share two young children.
Claire has also forged a successful career in showbiz as an actress and musician. She has starred in the movie, A Confident Man, and Jamie told Lorraine Kelly in an interview this week how he first met his wife while working on a play together.
Jamie also shares his wife's musical talents as he revealed on Instagram last month that he was back out performing in front of people for the first time since the pandemic. The actor is a talented guitar player and shared a clip last week of him singing an acoustic version of the Prince classic, Purple Rain.
The 48-year-old is a man of many talents as he also played football at a semi-professional level for Rusthall FC before he became an actor. The soap star has also been open with how he has struggled with anxiety as he pursued his acting ambitions.
He told Lorraine: "I suffered a few years back now, and I’m a 6 foot 4 burly guy – I’m a big bloke – so I’m typical of that demographic. I started suffering when I was in War Horse in the West End and something was happening to me and I didn’t know at it was, and it turns out I was suffering from anxiety and depression.
"It went on for a long time and I kind of silently suffered, and then a few years on I discovered through meditation and various other things that talking about it does literally halve the problem." The actor now hopes he can encourage people to talk by sharing his story.
He said: "I think there’s a lot of people like me on building sites and in normal, everyday life that don’t know what’s happening and have this fear that’s running through them and I want to be a bit of a champion to encourage people to talk."
Coronation Street airs Monday, Wednesday and Friday at 8pm on ITV and ITV Hub
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