EastEnders' Shona 'played it cool' with Matt

EastEnders' Shona McGarty has revealed how she played it cool with boyfriend Matt Lapinskas before they began dating. The 20-year-old actress, who plays Whitney Dean in EastEnders, has been seeing her co-star, who plays Anthony Moon, for four months. "The first time I ever saw him was when I saw a photo of the two new Moon boys. I was with Jacqueline [Jossa - Lauren Branning] at the time and she couldn't get a word in. I thought he was so good-looking!" she told New! "But I was trying to be quite cool about it, playing hard to get. The first time I met him... I just walked off. It was really embarrassing," she added. While she tried to play down her emotions, Shona realised her feelings for 22-year-old Matt at a family gathering. "There was a bit of nervous hesitation on my part. I'd be very well-behaved when he was around - not as giggly or chatty - so everyone knew something was going on! Then me and Matt just became really good friends," she recalled. "One weekend, I went to a family barbecue of his and it was absolutely amazing. That's where I knew that I really, really liked him. I just realised what an amazing person he is and also how amazing his family is." The actress joked that she was a 'nightmare girlfriend', adding: "I'm never on time - I'm actually a nightmare as a girlfriend. I don't know how he puts up with me."

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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.