Coronation Street fans stunned as co-star's forgotten real life romance comes to light

One Coronation Street character who doesn't shy away when it comes to romance is Carla Connor, played by Alison King. The ITV soap legend currently makes up one half of Swarla.

She is desperately trying to repair her relationship with fiancée Lisa Swain (Vicky Myers), after her wife Becky (Amy Cudden) 'returned from the dead' having spent time in witness protection. And it isn't the first time that the character has been unlucky in love. Carla joined the Cobbles back in 2006 and in that time she has been married five times - including twice to Peter Barlow. When not in wedlock she has had a number of other Weatherfield residents in her bed or on her arm as she is constantly unlucky in love. However, one person that the character didn't shack up with was Des Barnes, played by Philip Middlemiss in the 90s.

While the characters didn't find love on screen, the stars that played them actually had a lengthy romance in real life - much to the surprise of viewers.

Fans on Reddit unearthed an old newspaper article, from 1995, where Phil spoke about their love life. The newspaper details the actor met 22-year old Ali - who was at the time managing a branch of the Fat Willy's Surf Shack in Paignton, Devon - on holiday in Tenerife.

After being in the Canary Islands, the pair stayed in touch and enjoyed a trip to Dublin. However, they didn't make things official until they met again in London for a theatre date.

In the article he said that he "loves her to death" but apparently it wasn't enough to save the relationship. Phil was regularly making a 260 mile trip from his bachelor pad in Manchester down to Devon to visit her.

By 2000, Alison had moved to London for work and the pair had decided to go their separate ways.

Speaking after their split, Phil said: "I was in love with Allie. She's the only person I've ever really loved. But she was working in London and I was in Manchester.

"In another life, if I had been a bus driver and she had worked at the local baker's shop, we would have got married and had kids by now."