Emmerdale's real-life couple Jeff Hordley and Zoe Henry are often featured on Digital Spy, especially when they share updates on their home lives.
The popular pair rarely share scenes together in Soapland and only chat about their personal lives on rare occasions, so the details of how and when they got together may well have passed you by. Here's a quick guide to their history.
Getting together
While many real-life soap couples are first brought together by the show they star in, this wasn't the case for Jeff and Zoe. They met for the first time in the early '90s, long before their roles in Emmerdale, when they were both attending the same drama school.
Jeff opened up about their first meeting in an interview with Soaplife magazine in 2011, hinting that it was love at first sight. Zoe was in the year below Jeff, but Jeff has said that she was the only person who caught his eye.
He said: "We met at drama school in 1994. I saw Zoe and realised she was the girl for me." Aw!
Becoming co-stars for the first time
Jeff's early TV roles included small parts in Coronation Street and hospital drama Always and Everyone. In 2000, he scored his big break by landing the role of Emmerdale's Cain Dingle, who would go on to become one of the soap world's most popular characters.
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Zoe also had some early TV appearances in shows like Cold Feet and Grafters. In 2001, she joined Jeff in Emmerdale when she took on the role of Rhona, who worked as a locum vet helping out Paddy Kirk.
The character of Rhona appeared on and off in 2001 and 2002, but it'd be eight more years until she'd become a regular fixture in the village.
Jeff Hordley and Zoe Henry - wedding and children
Jeff decided to propose to Zoe on the same day that she won an award for Best Actress in a Leading Role at the Manchester Evening News's theatre awards. He'd been planning to pop the question for some time, but vowed to do it that day if Zoe was successful in her category, seeing it as a nice way to round off an already-exciting evening.
Jeff and Zoe tied the knot in 2003, but kept the wedding ceremony low-key.
In an interview with the Manchester Evening News at the time, Jeff explained: "OK and Hello magazines won't be there. No way. I like to keep my private life to myself.
"I just wouldn't do that. I wouldn't want to bring that kind of intrusive pressure on myself or on my family and my friends."
Jeff and Zoe went on to have two children – daughter Violet, born in 2005, and son Stan, born in 2008.
Zoe Henry's return to Emmerdale
After leaving Emmerdale, Zoe appeared in a number of other TV shows, including BBC Three crime drama Conviction and fellow ITV soap Coronation Street, on which she played Casey Carswell. She also appeared briefly on EastEnders as a detective constable.
In 2010, Zoe returned to Emmerdale as a regular cast member, reprising the role of Rhona. Jeff had taken a break from Emmerdale between 2006 and 2009, but was now back in the cast, too.
Cain and Rhona rarely share screen time together in Emmerdale, with their storylines hardly ever crossing.
In 2011, Jeff praised this decision by telling Soaplife: "We don't film at the same time so we can share the childcare. I don't think we'll ever have a storyline together – Cain and Rhona are too different. Cain thinks Rhona's a bit of a snobby cow. For me and Zoe it works well."
Zoe echoed this sentiment in 2012 when she told Inside Soap: "Let's be honest, Rhona and Cain would never interact!
"The only way they'd cross paths is if Cain bought a hamster and brought it into the vets, which is most unlikely. I can't imagine them having a conversation about anything.
"Jeff and I quite like that we don't do scenes together. It means we've got different days to talk about when we get home."
Emmerdale's Cain and Rhona in-jokes
Despite the lack of joint Cain and Rhona screen-time, the Emmerdale writers haven't been able to resist a few in-jokes over Jeff and Zoe's real-life connection.
In 2017, Rhona cheekily named Cain as her fantasy one-night stand, which came as much of a surprise to Zoe Henry as it did to viewers.
Speaking at the time, Zoe laughed: "I was just as surprised when I saw it in the script and so was Jeff! I had no idea that was coming at all.
"I understand why they used Cain as the person. I said to Jeff actually, when we talked it through, that it could easily have been Ross Barton.
"It needed to be somebody a bit rough and ready – and a bit dangerous. So Cain was the obvious choice – but I was a bit surprised!
"I can't imagine that it's a particularly good match – I'm just going to say it! I don't think they'd be particularly well suited. They might have a bit of chemistry, but I think it would be short-lived if anything did happen."
In 2019, the scriptwriters were at it again, when Cain made a jibe about Rhona. Speaking about Pete Barton's love life, Cain dismissively remarked that he "couldn't even keep hold of the vet". That's no way to talk about poor Rhona…
Jeff Hordley and Zoe Henry's house and married life
Although Jeff and Zoe understandably don't share too many details about their personal lives, it's no secret that they're proud owners of an allotment at their countryside house, where they grow their own veg.
In 2019, Zoe told Loose Women: "Jeff has Crohns. He was diagnosed when he was about 18, so he was 23 when I met him, and it's sort of changed our lives.
"There's a lot to be said about mental health and having your hands in the soil – that's a big one for me. For Jeff, it's the health benefits of eating what we've grown.
"It's great to share with my kids as well… not that they love it, they hate it. But I'm working on that!"
Emmerdale currently airs on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays at 7pm on ITV.
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