Actress Faye Brookes married her now-husband Iwan Lewis after a whirlwind romance just 10 months after they started dating, with her mum revealing how she knew he was ‘The One’

Faye Brookes opens up on her whirlwind romance with husband Iwan Lewis(Image: Instagram)

As Coronation Street’s Kate Connor, she was handed a host of sensational storylines – but nothing that appeared on screen could ever be as dramatic as the story of how actress Faye Brookes got together with her husband Iwan Lewis.

The pair married last year in a whirlwind romance just seven months after getting engaged and ten months after they started dating. But Faye has revealed for the first time that her mum predicated they would end up tying the knot a whole 13 years earlier.

In their early twenties, the couple had been cast together in the play Legally Blonde, where they spent 18 months together on tour. They became good friends and Iwan got to know Faye’s family.

Faye’s mum joked how the actress ‘didn’t even like’ her co-star before dating(Image: Mark Wallis Photography)

The couple wed after a 10-month romance(Image: Instagram)

She recalls: “He was saying to my mum, ‘You know I’m going to marry her one day?’ And my mum jested with him and said, ‘She doesn’t even like you!’ But my mum knew then.”

But while Iwan was waiting in the wings, former Pop Idol star Gareth Gates ended up centre stage after joining the cast of the same show the following year in 2012. He and Faye fell in love and were together for seven years, even getting engaged, but the relationship ended in 2019.

Faye then dated personal trainer Joe Davies and they moved in together, but they split in the summer of 2022. And by the end of that year, she was already engaged to Iwan.

“We were back in each other’s lives, but I didn’t really think anything of a romantic relationship with Iwan until I really started to spend more time with him,” Faye says. “We were sharing our lives together as friends and I loved being in his vicinity all the time. I loved our conversations; I loved the humour – there’s nobody makes me laugh the way the way he makes me laugh.

“He ended up saying: ‘Let me take you on a real date.’ We went on this date and for the first time ever I looked at him like the man I always knew he was going to be. I was like: ‘Now I’m ready for you and you’re ready for me.’ And that was it. I knew it was destiny stepping in and telling us: ‘This is it now. There’s no need to look at anybody else, or think about anybody else, or give anybody else the time of day.’

“When I was younger, I thought he was a beautiful man, but I knew we both had a lot of growing up to do. I thought he could be the right man for me, but I knew it wasn’t our time. We were meant to get together when we got together, and we were meant to get married after such a whirlwind romance, because we had waited long enough for one other.”

What is even more extraordinary is that Faye actually met Iwan for the first time at drama school, when they were both still teenagers. The actress, currently playing Roxie Hart in the award-winning nationwide tour of Chicago, smiled: “I’ve known Iwan since I was 18, so there’s nothing that man doesn’t know about me.

Faye first met Iwan aged just 18(Image: PR HANDOUT)

“He’s watched me grow up, he watched me being catapulted into the spotlight – he knew me before and he knows me now. He’s seen me really go through life, he loves me and nothing has changed in his eyes – he knows my heart and my soul.”

Faye joined Coronation Street in 2015 as feisty Kate Connor, the half-sister of factory boss Carla Connor. During her four years in the show, she had more than her fair share of drama and heartache, including the suicide of Kate’s brother Aidan and the tragic death of her fiancé Rana Nazir on what should have been their wedding day.

Faye is currently tackling a different sort of drama in the hit musical Chicago. Set in America’s glamorous jazz age, it features a host of well-known songs, including Razzle Dazzle and Cell Block Tango.

Alongside Strictly dancer Kevin Clifton in the role of Billy Flynn and Loose Women presenter Brenda Edwards as prison governor Mama Morton, Faye takes the lead role of Roxie Hart, a married nightclub dancer who murders her lover after he threatens to walk out on her.

Desperate to avoid conviction, she dupes the public and the media by hiring Chicago’s slickest criminal lawyer to transform her shocking crime into a barrage of sensational headlines. “I love the fact that it’s based on a true story,” Faye says. “There have been so many different versions and films over the years; it’s incredible – it’s like no other show – there’s a reason why it’s been going for so long.”

Faye has starred in several hit musicals since leaving Coronation Street. Her last TV appearance was in Dancing on Ice in 2021, where she came second, and she admits she would love a return to the small screen, but not necessarily to the cobbles.

“I would love to do more TV. I loved Corrie, but I’m hungry for more and I would like to do another role,” she explains. “My dream is to play somebody in a biopic, or create a Disney character.

“I’d also love to do Strictly – sign me up! I’m a fan of the show and it would be amazing to learn all sorts of dance styles. I touched on that working with Kevin Clifton in Strictly Ballroom – we got to do the Paso doble, a little bit of a Rumba and other dances that really got me excited and tested me.”

Faye, 37, has previously told how she suffered “breakdowns” during her appearance on Dancing on Ice as she strove for perfection. Today she says that she has never been happier and credits a strict daily routine of meditation and exercise with having helped her find her way. “I do a lot of work on me.

“If I’m not on stage I’m checking in with myself mentally and physically,” she explains. “I meditate and I work out every single day without fail, even if I’m doing two shows.

“Whether it be stretching or little dance routines, I have to do it for me. I think that’s really important for mind, body and soul to be aligned. Nothing fazes me if I do that routine every day.”

Faye, who lives with Iwan in the Cotswolds, will be touring with Chicago until next March, but admits she hopes one of her future roles could be as a mother. “If it’s in God’s plan I would love to have children,” she smiles. “I’m trusting in the universe. I’m just loving my life, I’m very happy and if I get children, it will be a blessing.”

In the meantime, she is relishing every second of married life, having waited until she was 36 to settle down. “It’s taken a lot of twists and turns in the road that have really challenged me,” she acknowledges. “The fact that I’ve had that time and gone through some life experience, I now know what I want and what I need.

“When Iwan got serious with me about spending the rest of his life with me, I suddenly thought that he was there the whole time and loved me unconditionally. He’s my rock and I didn’t think twice when he asked me to marry him, I just knew. He’s been my best friend and he will be my best friend forever.

“He will accept me for everything that I am, whether I am having a good day or a bad day, even if I’m not working and I’m just happy living in the Cotswolds forever; he just wants everything for me. He’s my biggest champion. He always has been and he always will be.”