But eighteen months on, Bill Roache has found happiness with a TV weather girl almost 40 years his junior.
The Coronation Street star, 78, who has played Ken Barlow for 50 years, was seen sharing a kiss with Emma Jesson as they left Granada studios in Manchester.
Miss Jesson, 41, bears a striking resemblance to the actor's late wife Sara, who died unexpectedly of heart failure last year.
Roache is understood to have been on several dates with Miss Jesson, who is younger than his children from his first marriage. She works as a weathergirl for ITV Central and ITV Granada and has also had a cameo role in Coronation Street.
