I’m not unlucky in love– my exes are.. I don’t want to settle until I find The One
Hollyoaks star on her search for Mr Right and how she’s buried hatchet with pal Kym over ex drama
THERE’S one phrase that haunts Dancing on Ice star Stephanie Waring – unlucky in love. Since the infamous bust up when Corrie’s Kym Marsh began dating her ex, the soap star has been seen as something of a poster girl for unhappy ever afters.
But with the big 4-0 looming in February, mum-of-two Steph has a message for all those feeling sorry for her – she will never just settle.
Indeed, with two daughters to set an example to, she would rather be alone than with the wrong man.
Stephanie said: “It’s so unfair when people call me unlucky in love. If I meet someone and I’m happy and in love, I will go to the ends of the earth to make it work. But if I’m not, I will end it and I will move on.
“I just don’t want to settle. I want to find the right person for me. I’m not the one who’s unlucky in love - it’s them.”
Steph has reason to sound feisty. She’s had a string of relationships in the limelight, including the dads of her two girls and most recently a sixmonth transatlantic fling with former EastEnders star Michael Greco, 47, who’s now living in LA.
Steph, 39, said: “I’m very fond of him but it wasn’t right so I ended it. Long distance doesn’t work for me.”
More recently, she was linked with Hollyoaks co-star Adam Woodward, 30, but said: “He’s great looking, don’t get me wrong - but we’re just friends.”
Finally, she giggles about kissing recently-divorced Scotland rugby ace and fellow Dancing on Ice contestant Max Evans, 34, after a boozy night out last month.
“Yes, what happened the other week happened but, you know...,” she said. “He’s like a big loveable puppy and we were just having a bit of fun.”
So what is Steph looking for? And would she ever want a little brother or sister for Mia, 12, and Lexi, seven?
“I’ve always said no to more children,” said Steph. “But now I’d love to find The One and maybe have a child with that person and give them a family.
“Yet I don’t want to settle. And I don’t care what people think.”
One ex she really binned with style was reality star Rick Shore, 27, who she split with in 2015 after reports he’d been messaging another woman. When he sent a bouquet of flowers as a grovelling apology, she filmed herself dropkicking them across the back garden and posted it on Twitter.
Steph said: “In my 20s, if a relationship wasn’t right and I didn’t want to hurt them, I’d stay in that relationship. But now I’m like, ‘Right, this isn’t right for me – and I’ve not got a lot of time’. I don’t want to be 50 going down the aisle.”
There’s another landmark looming first. She turns 40 in February.
“I’m nervous. I don’t want to be 40. I think I’ll cry,” Steph said. “It’s just a scary age isn’t it? Thirty was scary enough. I’m not going to deal with it very well. “I’ve always looked very young. When I was 17, I got in Disneyworld’s Magic Kingdom for the price of a nine-year-old. “Now I’m 40 but I just don’t feel it.” Steph had been alternating between “hiding under a duvet” or throwing a huge party for all her 20-something friends from Hollyoaks, where she’s played Cindy Cunningham on and off for 21 years. But now, if things go well, she might
have no choice but share her birthday with the nation – as she fully intends on skating her way to the Dancing On Ice final, when she joins the new run of the ITV1 series on Sunday, January 7.
It’s the first reality show Steph has done but she’s not planning on being easy competition for fellow contestants, including Brooke Vincent, Donna Air, and Cheryl Baker. In fact she’s already had pro-partner Sylvain Longchambon teaching her the Dirty Dancing lift.
“I want to learn all the lifts so I’m prepared,” she said. “I’m waking up at 6am buzzing to go to the rink. It’s become a real deep love already.”
Steph – who’s discovered a newfound “perfectionist side” – likes the fact Sylvain, 37, is tough on her.
“A lot of people would get their back up,” she said. “But if he wasn’t tough on me, I wouldn’t learn. He’s like Simon Cowell – you know when you get a ‘good’ from Sylvain you’ve done well.”
Is there not an elephant in the room, however? After all, Steph and Sylvain already knew each other from when he was engaged to her good friend and co-star Jennifer Metcalfe. The same Jen he split with in 2013 and got together with another skating partner, Corrie’s Samia Ghadie.
“It’s not been awkward with Jen at all,” Steph insisted. “She told me, ‘You’re in good hands’.” So Jen, 35, really doesn’t mind? Steph said: “You know what? That’s her stuff if she does. I’m so happy I’ve got Sylvain. I love the fact I knew him before. It’s just easier to be with him. This is not about them. This is about me and Sylvain getting to that final and winning it.”
There’s more than a flash of the Steph who drop-kicked the flowers.
Born in Urmston, Greater Manchester, Steph joined Hollyoaks in 1996, as the second actress to play Cindy Cunningham.
On screen, she’s been married six times to five people, battled bipolar, had numerous affairs and been involved with her share of murders. And Steph’s real life has been almost as jam-packed. During a hiatus from Hollyoaks between 2004 and 2008, she filmed in Australia, had a brief stint in Coronation Street as single mum Emma, did a few comedy series and considered LA when she got pregnant with Mia, by ex Dan Jollings.
She later had Lexi with a second partner, after which she suffered postnatal depression. “I feel like a different person now,” she said
Kym Marsh, 41, began to date her ex – six weeks after he and Steph split – resulting in a public war of words. Now Kym’s moved on to new fiance Matt Baker, they’ve patched things up. “I saw her a month ago and we had a drink and a catch up – we’ve got a nice relationship now,” said Steph.
One old friend she maybe should have kept in better touch with was Suits star Rick Hoffman, whose co-star was Meghan Markle.
So any hope of being a plus one to the Royal Wedding? “No!,” laughed Steph. “Rick and I drifted apart because he’s across the Atlantic.”
In the meantime, she’s putting any feelings of falling head over heels in love on hold, and making sure she doesn’t take a stumble on the ice... ●Steph’s in C4’s Hollyoaks weekdays at 6.30pm and Dancing On Ice, ITV1, from Sunday, January 7.
You know when you get a ‘good’ from Sylvain, you’ve done well STEPH WARING