Former Coronation Street star Wendi Peters has opened up about her new relationship following her marriage ending.
The Cilla Battersby-Brown actor recently separated from husband Kenny Linden after being married since 1993.
Speaking in a new interview with The Sun, the star recalled that the idea of meeting someone new afterwards was “a bit scary”, though her friends convinced her to begin online dating.
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Wendi has since started a relationship with Gareth Wale, whom she met online, and admitted that he wasn’t initially aware of her fame when they matched.
“Gareth popped up and we’ve been really happy since,” the star said. “We’d been chatting online for a while when he asked what I did. I said, ‘Oh, well I’m an actress.’
“He said, ‘Oh, what kind? Amateur, theatre, TV?’ I said I was in Coronation Street. Then there was a gap of about an hour before he emailed me back. Obviously, he’d been Googling!
“He said, ‘You’re a star. What are you doing talking to a carpet showroom fitter from Leicester?'”
Wendi went on to share that the difference in their careers gives them “so much more scope for conversation”.
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She also reflected on both of them being older and having children, explaining: “We obviously love them but they’re not there on a day-to-day basis any more, so we can focus on the two of us.
“We spend as much time as we can with each other and we’ll just see where it goes but I’m very happy. We’ve done quite a lot of travelling together, which is rather nice.”
Wendi further revealed that she and Leicester-based Gareth “might consider” moving in together, noting their geographical distance from one another given she lives in Buckinghamshire.
“It’s very hard continuing a relationship when you’re 150 miles [round trip] away from each other, with very different work hours, so that may be something that will happen in the future,” she said.
“I was married a long time, and I mean, never say never to doing it again. At the moment, though, I just don’t really see the need.”
Coronation Street airs on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays at 8pm on ITV1 and streams on ITVX.
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