Gavin & Stacey star Ruth Jones has split from her partner David Peet, who has now started a new relationship after moving to Canada but the pair have insisted they remain friends

Gavin & Stacey icon Ruth Jones and her producer husband David Peet have split. The couple who are now legally separated “remain good friends.” The couple, who got married 26 years ago, have since spoken out about their decision to separate.

In a statement shared with the PA news agency, they said: “We amicably went our separate ways 18 months ago and are now legally separated. We remain good friends. Since our separation, Ruth is living in London and David is living in Canada, where he is in a new relationship.” Ruth was a step-mum to David’s three children from a previous marriage.

The former couple met when they were both filming a pilot of a BBC comedy in the early 90s. At the time, David was married, with Ruth later explaining that there had been an overlap with their relationship. She said: “Affairs cause a lot of pain; they’re not something one aspires to do. You don’t aspire to cause pain to people in their life.”

But the pair spoke on the phone before meeting one another, with Ruth, 58, previously explaining to The Scotsman: “It was love at first voice because I spoke to [him] on the phone before I met him.” While she rarely shared an insight into her relationship, she said in 2008: “He has a very sharp mind combined with a dry Yorkshire wit, making him a naturally funny man.”

Ruth has thrown herself into work and remains single ( 
Image:
PA)

The couple had lived in Cardiff, where they established their production company Tidy Productions (“tidy” as in its Welsh meaning for good), which created Gavin & Stacey. Speaking about her views on children, Ruth previously told the Daily Mail: “It just didn’t happen. It wasn’t a decision. I don’t have a burning desire to have babies. I think it’s heartbreaking if you do and you find out you can’t have them. I love being a stepmum — all the joy of motherhood without the pain of childbirth.”

And she told The Scotsman of the “joys of parenthood without giving birth” that she adores her role as a stepmum. She gushed: “You take things as they come. There wasn’t a moment when I thought, ‘I’ve become a stepmum now.’ We never had any difficulty with teenage angst, and now I’m looking forward to becoming a step-grandmother at some point.”

Jones rose to fame as the co-writer and star of Gavin & Stacey, playing Vanessa ‘Nessa’ Jenkins, in three series and three Christmas specials from 2007 to 2024. The show’s finale episode, which aired on Christmas Day 2024, saw Jones’s character Nessa marry Neil ‘Smithy’ Smith, played by her fellow co-writer James Corden.

At this year’s TV Baftas, Jones won the best female performance in a comedy for her role in Gavin and Stacey. Jones has also appeared in ITV drama Fat Friends, BBC sketch show Little Britain, BBC sitcom Saxondale, and BBC black comedy Nighty Night.

She is working alongside Richard E Grant in a new period drama ( 
Image:
Supplied)
Other roles include playing Carry On star Hattie Jacques in a BBC biopic. In 2014, Jones was made a Member Of The Order Of The British Empire (MBE) in the New Year Honours for her services to entertainment.

But while David has since moved on and started a new relationship, Ruth has thrown herself into work. She is following in the footsteps of her former co-star Alison Steadman by taking on Jane Austen’s iconic character of Mrs Bennet in a major new BBC series.

The comedy favourite will play the Pride & Prejudice matriarch in The Other Bennet Sister alongside Richard E. Grant, 68, who has revealed that playing the role of Mr Bennet is a lifelong ambition. One show insider told the Mirror: “It’s long been known that this was on Richard’s bucket list and he leapt at the opportunity when the BBC approached him.

“Ruth was similarly enthusiastic over playing a character who is about as far from Nessa as it is possible to be. She’s overjoyed to be swapping her leather mini skirt and boots for a crinoline and bonnet.” The 10-part drama is an adaptation of Janice Hadlow’s novel, which explores and expands the world of Pride and Prejudice through the often-overlooked perspective of Mary Bennet, played by former Call the Midwife star Ella Broccoleri.

In the story, Mary is given the epic love story nobody predicted for her. It takes her from her family home in Meryton to the soirees of Regency London and the peaks and vales of the Lake District – all in search of independence, romance and, most elusive of all, self-love and acceptance.

Gavin & Stacey, which she co-wrote with Corden, drew to a close with 21 million viewers at Christmas. Steadman, who plays Nessa’s best friend Stacey’s mother-in-law Pam Shipman, was previously Mrs Bennet in the BBC’s award-winning 1995 Pride & Prejudice adaptation, starring Colin Firth as Mr Darcy and Jennifer Ehle as Elizabeth Bennet.

Writer Sarah Quintrell says: “I’m thrilled to be telling the story of Mary – the other Bennet sister – exploring what it is to come of age when you’re the odd one out.” Saying she herself had been an “awkward, anxious” teen, she added: “I grew up watching the BBC’s wonderful Austen adaptations. It’s the stuff every writer dreams of and I can’t wait to bring this beautiful story to the screen – not least, for all the Marys out there.”

Producer Jane Tranter, of Bad Wolf, said that she’d landed the “ensemble cast of our dreams” for the new series, which is part of the BBC’s celebration of Austin’s 250th anniversary, adding: “We have been working behind the scenes on The Other Bennet Sister for many years now, and Janice’s brilliantly observed characters have lived and grown in our imaginations throughout that time as Sarah has been working on the scripts. So our actors had a lot to live up to – and I can honestly say that this is the ensemble cast of our dreams.

“Each one brings something new and exciting to the world of Austen. And all of us at Bad Wolf are delighted to be making a drama that brings such joy.”