Watch as Emmerdale's Matthew Wolfenden reveals brutal way co-star wife dumped him after 15 years together

The Irish Sun

21-05-2025

FORMER Emmerdale star Matthew Wolfenden has revealed the brutal way wife Charley Webb dumped him.
The actor - who played David Metcalfe in the ITV soap - met Charley on the job and the pair fell in love, getting married and eventually having three children.
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Matthew Wolfenden has revealed how Charley Webb ended their marriage
Credit: Getty
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The couple were together for 15 years and share three sons
Credit: miss_charleywebb/Instagram
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The couple met while both working on Emmerdale
Credit: Instagram
But after 15 years together, Matthew has told how Charley ended their
marriage
while she was on tour with a play.
Matthew, who had just quit Emmerdale and was at home raising the boys, was about to temporarily move to
London
for a West End play.
He said: 'It was Charley's decision. Charley decided she wanted to separate.
'It was hard, it was a hard time for me. By this point I'd decided to leave Emmerdale. Charley was on tour with a play called Quiz so I was leaving a job I'd been in for 18 years, I'd just been offered a job in the West End, so it was a big change for me.
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'I had the kids full time at that time because Charley was out on tour and then out of the blue I got this
news
that she wanted to separate.
'It was a tough time for me, it was a time of big changes and then this on top of things wasn't the best news in the world. But things happen for a reason and yeah.
'It was a very very tough time but these things happen and I'm not the first person in the world to have separated from their partner with kids involved.
'It was the fact that the kids were quite young and it wasn't only a couple of years ago. That was a concern to me. We had to move onwards.'
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'Especially when the separation happened when Charley was on tour and I was moving to London after leaving Emmerdale.'
But he also revealed after the initial devastation, the former couple put their differences aside and found a way forward.
He added: 'Everything was a bit up in the air for the first few months but we're very very amicable, we're still friends and we've got kids together so you have to be. We're always going to have a relationship.
'We had the best 15 years together and we had three amazing kids together. But in terms of co-parenting we decided we'd do a week on, week off.
'We kept
our house
for the time being so the kids didn't have to move between houses until they got their heads around it really. We wanted it to be as much of a comfortable transition for the kids as possible.'
Real-life soap couples
Soaps are renowned for their sweet and scandalous romances – but it's not just in scripted storylines where love is blossoming. A number of our favourite small-screen actors have fallen for co-stars and soapland rivals when the cameras have stopped rolling.
Max Parker and Kris Mochrie
Despite playing brothers Luke and Lee Posner on Emmerdale, the pair never actually shared any scenes together. But the pair still fell in love after meeting on set. Max and Kris got together in 2020, moving in together later than same year and got engaged in 2022. In
Beth Cordingly and Ian Kelsey
Beth, who plays Ruby Fox-Miligan, announced her love for her co-star Ian Kelsey, who played Dean Glover, shortly after she joined Emmerdale at the beginning of 2024. 'I am very in love with Ian and very happy. I think it really does work him being an actor too. He has been so fantastic,"
Laura Norton and Mark Jordan
Kerry Wyatt and Daz Eden actors Laura and Mark met on the set of Emmerdale in 2014. The couple, who got engaged in 2018, told Loose Women they spent a long time deciding whether they should "just stay as friends." Although it seems they were meant to be and the pair now share two children together.
Zoe Henry and Jeff Hordley
Emmerdale favourites
Lesley Dunlop and Chris Chittell
Lesley and Chris are another
Sally Carman and Joe Duttine
Abi Franklin and Tim Metcalfe actors Sally and Joe got together after meeting on the set of Coronation Street in 2017 and they
Anthony Cotton and Peter Eccleston
Sean Tully may have been unlucky in love on the cobbles, but in real life Antony's met his Prince Charming. The soap star started dating long-term partner Peter in 2005, after they met when he was working as an assistant props buyer on Corrie.
Jane Danson and Robert Beck
Corrie favourite
Caroline Harding and Chris Gascoyne
Chris, who played
Nadine Mulkerrin and Rory Douglas Speed
Nadine Mulkerrin, and Rory Doulas Speed are known for their Hollyoaks alter egos Cleo McQueen and Joel Dexter. The loved-up pair got engaged on a December 2018 trip to Amsterdam - just over a year after they announced they were dating. They now share two kids, Reggie and Dougie.
Sophie Austin and Shayne Ward
Former Hollyoaks star Sophie, whose best known for playing villain Lindsay Butterfield, was introduced to singer and ex-Corrie star Shayne through mutual friends. She gave birth to their daughter Willow in December 2016 and they welcomed a son in 2022.
And he revealed he's taken a huge step with his nw girlfriend Heather, who he met while starring in the West End after his split.
Matthew said: 'Things do have to come to an end so we've just sold our house and me and my new partner have just bought a house so there's going to be another transition. These thing take time but it's all good.'