Exciting news Coronation Street fans – a real life soap romance has blossomed on the cobbles of Weatherfield! Daniel Brocklebank has confirmed his relationship with co-star Rob Mallard. The couple, who play Daniel Osbourne and vicar Billy Mayhew, have become increasingly close ever since Rob joined the soap last year as Ken Barlow's long-lost son. On Friday, they made their red carpet debut together at the LGBT Awards, and on Tuesday Dan took to Twitter to make things official. He wrote: "It's true @Rob-Mallard only came round to put some shelves up & it went from there... #LoveIsInTheAir."
Daniel Brocklebank confirmed his romance with Corrie co-star Rob Mallard on Twitter
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Ahead of Friday's awards ceremony, Daniel, 37, and Rob shared the same photo on their social media accounts, showing them posing together for a selfie. "On our way to the @BritLGBTAwards @Rob_Mallard #SuitedAndBooted," Daniel captioned the black tie photo. Daniel stars in Corrie as gay vicar Billy, who has been involved in screen romance with Todd Grimshaw (Bruno Langley) and Sean Tulley (Anthony Cotton). A source told the Sun: "Daniel was instantly attracted to Rob when he joined the cast. They got on really well and quickly developed feeling for each other. The cast love having them together at social occasions and there is definitely real chemistry there. They both know people will be interested in what is going on, but they don't mind."
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The couple posed for a photo together ahead of the LGBT Awards on Friday
Rob confirmed his sexuality in January, telling Gay Times that his family had known for the past eight years. He said: "I never planned to keep it quiet that I was gay. The only concern I had at first was if I'm with a female character, will an audience who knows I'm gay in real life believe it? But that was just my own fears because I do believe they will." He added: "I was very fortunate, I had a very non-plussed family and it's become the subject of warm, friendly general humour over the years."