Dame Maureen Lipman, best known for playing Evelyn Plummer in Coronation Street, is set to marry her fiancé David Turner this weekend. The 79-year-old actress proposed to the business consultant, also 79, on a train last September.
Her friend and Gogglebox co-star Gyles Brandreth confirmed the news on his Rosebud podcast, saying: 'Dame Maureen Lipman, this Sunday I will be going to her wedding. She's getting married. She's getting married in the morning! I think it's actually the afternoon. I'll be there. Isn't it fantastic? To get married in your 80th year is fantastic.'
Lipman wrote in the Spectator about her unusual proposal: 'On a train coming back from Edinburgh he mentioned that it was the minor festival of Tu B’Av – a day when a Jewish woman can ask a man to marry her. Unable to resist the gag, I slid under the table separating us onto one knee and asked him for his hand. To my surprise and slight panic, he gave it.'
This will be the second marriage for Lipman, who was married to TV scriptwriter Jack Rosenthal for 30 years until his death in 2004. They had two children, Amy, 50, and Adam, 48. Turner has three children from a previous relationship. The couple announced their engagement last year, and Lipman said all their children reacted warmly to the surprise news.
Lipman first went public with her relationship with Turner in 2023, bringing him as her 'gentleman friend' to the National Television Awards. She previously dated Italian businessman Guido Castro for 13 years before his death in 2021.
