Matthew Wolfenden and his wife Charley Webb told ‘Emmerdale’ bosses that they didn’t want their characters to have an on-screen romance.
The 38-year-old actor plays David Metcalfe, whilst his spouse portrays Debbie Dingle in the ITV soap and at one stage the writers wanted to recreate their real-life relationship on screen.
However, they both blocked it because they didn’t want to spend all their time together and were worried it would spoil their work/life balance.
In an interview on ‘This Morning’, Matthew revealed: "They said they were gonna put our characters together and we just said no this would be dreadful. We go home together, we learn our lines together as it is and the thought of getting up in the morning and travelling to work together and then being at work all day doing scenes together and then going home together, we just said, ‘No please don’t put us together.’
"It’s nice to get up and go off and be off with our ‘Emmerdale’ families and then get back home together."
Matthew also admitted that he and Charley – who have two sons together, Buster and Bowie – get stopped all the time by ‘Emmerdale’ fans when they are and out and about.
The couple are very grateful for the love and support from the soap’s viewers but it can take them a bit longer to complete their weekly food shop because of the interactions.
He said: "I mean it is great, people are so fantastic but it does take an extra half an hour to an hour walking round supermarkets together – we do get stopped quite a lot!"
Matthew has also shared how he feels about his character’s current storyline, in which his character David embarks on an affair with Maya Cavanagh (Lousia Clein) even though she is married to Dr. Cavanagh (Jonny McPherson) and he has only recently split from wife Tracy (Amy Walsh).
He said: "It’s crazy isn’t it? He’s literally just split up from his wife a couple of weeks ago and he’s already jumped into bed.
"I mean David was never, never like this, I think he probably has more relationships than any other character in Emmerdale at the moment so yeah it’s turning into a bit of a lothario."