Maureen Lipman has announced her engagement to her boyfriend, business consultant David Turner.
The Coronation Street legend, 78, revealed it was she who popped the question to her partner, also 78, while trying to crack a joke during a train journey.
Maureen wrote in the ViewerLater that evening, my partner David and I decided to tell our children that, with a combined age of 156, we are getting married.
‘I was actually quite against the ‘M’ word, but on a train back from Edinburgh she mentioned that it was the minor holiday of Tu B’Av, a day on which a Jewish woman can ask a man to marry her.
‘Unable to resist the gag, I slid under the table separating us, got down on one knee and asked for her hand. To my surprise and a little panic, she gave it to me.’
Maureen Lipman has revealed that she is engaged to her boyfriend, business consultant David Turner (pictured Sept. 5)
The Coronation Street legend, 78, revealed it was she who popped the question to her partner, also 78, while trying to crack a joke during a train journey (pictured in May).
The actress was married to TV writer Jack Rosenthal for 30 years until his death in 2004 and they welcomed daughters Amy, 50, and Adam, 48. David also has three children from a previous relationship.
Writing about how the children took the news, she shared: ‘All the reactions were warm and all individual.
‘One child said he needed time to “take it in.” We broke the news to another as he laid out leaves on a new dining table, turning the scene into a Jack Rosenthal play, one that, I like to think, has a happy ending.’
Maureen first mentioned David in the autumn of 2023, when she shared that she would be bringing a “gentleman friend” to that year’s National Television Awards.
Speaking in an exclusive interview with the Sunday Express She said, ‘I’m going with my gentleman friend David.’
Speaking about finding love again at 77, the star expressed her joy at sharing her life with a partner.
She said: “It’s a gift for everyone involved. It’s a gift and he’s been very nice. I’ve met some nice men in my life, some really interesting men, and we’ll see where it takes us.”
They made their public appearance debut at the Oldie Of The Year Awards that November.
At the event, Maureen proudly said of David: “That’s my man.”
The actress was married to TV writer Jack Rosenthal for 30 years until his death in 2004 (pictured on their wedding day in 1973) and they welcomed daughter Amy, 50, and son Adam, 48.
Maureen had a 13-year relationship with computer expert Guido Castro, who died in 2021, after his body was “weakened” by Covid (pictured in 2014)
Following her husband’s death, Maureen dated Italian businessman Guido Castro for 13 years before his death in 2021.
Speaking about her partner’s death, Maureen confirmed: ‘He had Covid, it wasn’t Covid that killed him but it weakened him terribly.
“We don’t know how he contracted it or when or if he had it when he received the vaccine.”
Maureen added sadly: “I told Guido, ‘It’s time to go. You have to let him go.’ And I think for the first time in his life he did what I told him.”
Maureen is now best known for her role as the grandmother of established character Tyrone Dobbs in Corrie.
She has appeared in the Manchester soap opera as Evelyn Plummer, mother of addict Cassie Plummer, since 2018.
This role earned her two awards: Best Newcomer at the Inside Soap Awards and Best Comedy Performance at the British Soap Awards.
Maureen was made a Dame in 2021 in the Queen’s belated Birthday Honours list in recognition of a career in stage and screen stretching back more than 50 years.
After training at LAMDA, her work focused mainly on theatre and the actress was a member of the RSC and Laurence Olivier’s National Theatre Company in the 1970s.
She later rose to fame on television playing an agony aunt whose personal life was a mess in the late 1970s sitcom Agony, and then as Jewish grandmother Beattie in a series of famous BT adverts.
On the big screen, she has had supporting roles in Educating Rita, with Michael Caine and Julie Walters, and in Roman Polanski’s Oscar-winning The Pianist in 2002.
Maureen plays Evelyn Plummer, Tyrone Dobbs’ (Alan Halsall) long-lost grandmother in Coronation Street.
In recent months, Maureen has been a staunch defender of Israel amid the conflict with Gaza.
Commenting on the April conflict, he said that “left and right are interchangeable” when it comes to hatred of the Jewish state.
In an interview with the The Sunday Telegraph“Not a day goes by” that he doesn’t think about the hostages still trapped in Gaza, he said.
He also criticized the acting community for joining the anti-Zionism movement.
Last October, an open letter was signed by famous actors condemning the actions of the Israeli army in Gaza, including Steve Coogan, Maxine Peake, Tilda Swinton and Charles Dance.
The letter was signed by more than 2,000 actors, musicians and artists and accuses the government of “not only tolerating war crimes, but also aiding and abetting them.”
He called for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza but was criticised for failing to condemn Hamas terror attacks.