Actor Dominic Brunt has played vet Paddy Kirk in ITV ‘s Emmerdale for nearly 30 years but away from the Yorkshire Dales his life couldn’t be more different

There’s a lot about Paddy Kirk actor Dominic Brunt that you don’t know.

What do Mandy Dingle, Emily Dingle, Rhona Goskirk and Chas Dingle all have in common? They’ve all been married to Emmerdale vet Paddy who has been a familiar face on the soap since 1997.

But away from the cameras actor Dominic Brunt is happily married to his wife, fellow soap star, Joanne Mitchell and the couple have two sons. We take a look at his off screen family life, heartbreak and unusual side gig.

Dominic met his fellow screen star wife when they were both studying at The Bristol Old Vic Theatre School, and just like her husband, Joanne Mitchell is a film, stage and TV actor. The two have been married since 2003 and share two children together. If Dominic Brunt’s wife looks familiar that’s because she also works on Emmerdale playing Liv Dingle’s mum Sandra Flaherty.

Joanne and Dominic have two sons – Mickey-Joe and Danny Lee – and while their exact ages aren’t known, it’s thought the pair are both teenagers. On This Morning Dominic revealed how the couple battled their own personal heartache when Danny had to undergo heart surgery when he was just eight months old.

The couple’s son went through a terrifying health scare
“He had to go through major heart surgery at eight months, but he’s fine now,” Dominic said. “It’s the most horrific thing to have to go through as a parent but he’s football mad now – he’s completely fine – he has to check up once a year for the rest of his life. The people at Leeds Infirmary carry you through as parents because you don’t know what you’re doing and you’re given this information and you have to go through it. At the time it was horrific. You’re in the eye of the storm, it was horrible. You think you are going to lose your son.”

Dominic may have played Paddy Kirk since 1997, but in recent years has also turned his hand to working behind the camera. A huge fan of horror, Dominic runs an annual zombie film festival in Leeds alongside his Emmerdale co-star Mark Charnock. And Dominic and his wife have undertaken lots of projects together, including co-founding Mitchell Brunt Films, with Joanne working as producer and writer on several of the company’s films.

However, he told Loose Women viewers his loyalties lie with Emmerdale. He added: “It takes about two to four years to get the funding together and sometimes films collapse and sometimes they get up and go forward but it can be a very tricky situation, but I don’t want to ever do one of them by halves, so I only do them every few years. I’m happy with Emmerdale and I really love it. I’m a really big fan of the show and I’m very lucky. I’ve probably dodged a couple of bullets and I never ever take it for granted.”

Emmerdale is on ITV tonight at 7:30pm