Wedding bells for Clelia as she’s set to marry the boy next door
WEDDING bells are set to chime for flame-haired actress Clelia Murphy, best known for her portrayal of Niamh Cassidy in RTE’s Fair City, the Irish Mail on Sunday can reveal.
Like a storyline straight out of a soap, Clelia is set to marry her childhood sweetheart Neil Casserly after the pair reignited their romance.
The thespian and her husband-tobe lost contact for a period but reconnected on social media.
Clelia has shared a snapshot of her rekindled romance with ‘teenage sweetheart’ Neil on social media with the couple looking head-over-heels for each other. The pair appear to have seamlessly blended showbiz and normal life with pictures showcasing their varied dates.
Now after waltzing back into the actress’s life, Neil has gone down on bended knee with a marriage proposal.
‘Clelia was blown-away. When they reconnected it brought all those teenage flutters back. So when he asked her to marry him, it really was a case of an offer that was never going to be refused,’ said a source.
Clelia is experiencing somewhat of a whirlwind time of late with both her personal and professional life.
She has landed a major role in the long running UK series Doctors after leaving the secure confines of Carrigstown, as previously revealed by the IMOS.
She has also just wrapped on a second series of the Channel 5 series Madame Blanc written by Sally Lindsay who also stars in the murder mystery drama.
Coronation Street actress Lindsay has made the move into production and she was so taken with Clelia’s performance in the debut murder mystery series that she enlisted her for a return role.
The all-girls drama has just wrapped in Malta and Clelia told the IMoS: ‘Sally is such a supporter of women in the industry. She is not about helping women climb the ladder but rather she lowers the steps so people can get a foot on the bottom rung in the first instance. I have huge respect for her as both an actress and a leader.’
Castleknock native Clelia’s own ladder to success began when she was just a schoolgirl. She joined Fair City in 1998 in the role of of Niamh Cassidy – and went on to play her for more than two decades before leaving last year.
‘It was terrifying to leave but I had to make that decision. I had been thinking about it since 2015 so it wasn’t something I did lightly,’ she said.
After she left, Clelia almost immediately landed a role in Doctors and she began filming in Birmingham.
So while she is now embarking on what looks poised to be a stellar new career she can also look forward to a new beginning in married life.
news@mailonsunday.ie
‘It brought all those teenage flutters back’
‘It was terrifying to leave [Fair City]’