Netflix Virgin River fans only just discovering cast members are married in real life

Daily Record

30-04-2025

As fans of Virgin River wait for the release of the highly anticipated seventh season of the hit Netflix show, they are only just realising that a certain two cast members are married in real life.
These two characters not only had a romantic relationship in the show, but have been married in real life for over two whole decades.
Lucia Walters who plays Julia, a martial arts teacher in season three of the show is married to Colin Lawrence who plays John 'Preacher' Middleton, and the couple first met while in acting school back 1997 and eventually tied the knot in 1999.
While Colin has played Preacher on the show since the first season, Lucia had a brief stunt in the show joining the cast of Virgin River towards the end of season three.
Julia is a martial arts instructor who runs into Preacher, when he attends one of her Aikido classes and almost right away the pair have very clear flirtatious energy and their friendship quickly turns into something more much to the delight of fans.
After a few dates around the town Virgin River, the couple made it official. Although things become complicated when the season finale of the fourth season ends with Preacher's former love interest Paige returning with her son Christopher, leading to a love triangle between the three.
Julia took herself out of the triangle and was then quickly written out of the series as Preacher continued his life in Virgin River without her.
Preacher and Julia had great on-screen chemistry which makes sense knowing Colin and Lucia have been together for 28 years.
The pair even share two young daughters together - with their eldest Bianca Lawrence following in her parents footsteps as an actor. Bianca and Colin even starred in a Christmas film together Dancing Through the Snow, which was released in 2021.
The couple live in Vancouver, Canada which is not too far away from where the popular Netflix series is filmed - away from Virgin River, Lucia is known best for her roles in Day of the Dead as Dr Logan and The 100 as Miranda.
Although the couple sharing the screen does not stop there, Colin and Lucia also previously starred together in Fifty Shades Darker, the second film in the erotic romance series which starred Dakota Johnson and Jamie Dornan, which came out in 2017.
The cast of Virgin River have gathered in Canada as filming for the seventh season has began and fans are speculating when the season will be released on the streaming platform.
There are some clues when the seventh season might be released.
Season seven is currently in production, with Alexandra and Martin confirming the cast are back in Vancouver via multiple social media posts.
According to a Netflix insider site, the actors will wrap up filming on June 26 this year and filming for the previous season spanned from February to May 2024 with the production team managing to get the season out just a few months later in December last year.
The whole process from finishing filming to release for season six took a total of seven months. So, if the crew are using a similar timeframe, it seems like season seven could end up on Netflix in January 2026.