EastEnders' Jacqueline and Tony are a couple

EastEnders' Jacqueline and Tony are a couple
EastEnders' Jacqueline and Tony are a couple (Image credit: PA)

EastEnders stars Jacqueline Jossa and Tony Discipline stepped out in public together for the first time as they attended the Wrath Of The Titans premiere in London. The soap stars - whose characters Lauren Branning and Tyler Moon had a brief on-screen fling - began dating last year, but this was their first official event as a couple. The pair became a real-life couple on the set of EastEnders, where Jacqueline, 19, has been playing teenage tearaway Lauren since September 2010, and Tony joined last June. But Jacqueline recently revealed to The Sun she had met Tony before he was cast in the soap, and there was a spark right from the beginning. She said: "Tony came up and said he was auditioning for EastEnders. I didn't believe him, though when I walked back to my mates, I was like, 'Did you see his teeth?! He's well fit.' "But I left it. I didn't think he was going to join EastEnders. He even added me on Facebook and I deleted him! "Then a couple of months later, I came into work and there he was. I called my cousin and said, 'Do you remember Fit Boy? He is in the building.'" She admitted the pair had wanted to keep their relationship low-key at first, as they were wary of dating at work. She said: "We didn't get together for ages, as we thought it'd be weird on set, but it got to the point where there was no other option. "We kept it a secret at first, but everyone was like, 'Oh, we knew.'"

Patrick McLennan

Patrick McLennan is a London-based journalist and documentary maker who has worked as a writer, sub-editor, digital editor and TV producer in the UK and New Zealand. His CV includes spells as a news producer at the BBC and TVNZ, as well as web editor for Time Inc UK. He has produced TV news and entertainment features on personalities as diverse as Nick Cave, Tom Hardy, Clive James, Jodie Marsh and Kevin Bacon and he co-produced and directed The Ponds, which has screened in UK cinemas, BBC Four and is currently available on Netflix. 


An entertainment writer with a diverse taste in TV and film, he lists Seinfeld, The Sopranos, The Chase, The Thick of It and Detectorists among his favourite shows, but steers well clear of most sci-fi.