ITV Emmerdale star Danny Miller’s emotional real life – childhood sweetheart wife to ‘miracle’ babies
Emmerdale star Danny Miller has reprised his role as Aaron Dingle for the fourth time after taking time away from the ITV soap to look after his baby son and daughter
Actor Danny Miller is best known for playing Aaron Dingle in Emmerdale, but away from the cameras, he is a doting dad-of-two.
Having been on and off the ITV soap since 2008, the 33-year-old has been embroiled in a few heavy storylines including sexual assault by his father, a prison sentence and his marriage to Robert Sugden. After five years, Danny quit the Dales to explore other ventures including a regular role in the gripping crime drama Scott & Bailey.
He returned two years later in 2014, but took a brief period out to take part in I’m A Celebrity, where he was crowned winner. More recently, Danny and his young family moved to Leeds to be closer to his work, but amid his latest storyline, he feared he was about to be killed off.
His character Aaron found out he has the faulty BRCA2 gene, inherited from his mum Chas Dingle. Chas decided to have a double mastectomy after her own diagnosis and mum Faith Dingle’s death, and has urged her brothers Cain Dingle and Caleb Milligan as well as her son Aaron to get tested.
Danny Miller could be making a return to Emmerdale (
Ken McKay/ITV/REX/Shutterstock)
Danny Miller with his wife Steph and their son Albert (
danny_b_miller/Instagram)
Speaking to The Mirror and other press, Danny said: “My first thought about this story was, ‘I’ve just moved to Leeds, please don’t kill me off!’ There are people who just have bad luck, which follows them. So I knew what they were going to say when it was the three of them [Cain Dingle, Caleb Milligan and his character Aaron] who take the gene test. I remember saying, ‘It’s me that gets it, isn’t it?'”
Meanwhile, before his recent return to Emmerdale, he admitted he was enjoying parenting for the time being. Last September he told Metro: “You never say never with soap. Maybe one day. I am enjoying being a dad of two now, I’m enjoying that wave, so we’ll see how it goes and how long it takes!” As he joins the Loose Women panel today, The Mirror takes a look at Danny’s life off-screen – his family life and his job away from the cameras.
Family life
Actor Danny Miller married his childhood sweetheart Steph Jones in 2022 in a stunning ceremony in Cheshire surrounded by celebrity pals and family. Danny initially met the midwife at school but they only got together in 2019. Two years later, during a trip to St Lucia in 2021, which Steph had booked to celebrate Danny’s 30th birthday, he popped the question.
The couple became a family of three a month later when Steph found out she was expecting the couple’s first child. At the time, the couple had been considering starting IVF treatment when Steph learned she had fallen pregnant naturally.
Speaking about their pregnancy, she told OK!: “It was a massive surprise because emotionally we’d been psyching ourselves up for IVF. It was meant to be. We got engaged at the beginning of January and found out we were expecting in February.”
Danny and his family joined Loose Women (
ITV)
Opening up about becoming a dad for the first time, Danny told OK! about how it’s nothing he’s ever felt before. “Most of my mates or family members who have had kids, they always tell you there is no feeling like it and it can be a tiresome saying, but it’s not until you have one you understand what they’re saying. There really is no feeling like it.”
Fast-forward two years, and the couple welcomed another baby into their family – a baby girl. Danny confirmed the arrival of their daughter in August last year by sharing a clip of their son Albert meeting his sister for the first time. Danny was overheard saying in the background: “That’s your baby sister, Albert. You’re a big brother now.”
Sharing the snap on Instagram he wrote: “When three becomes four. Welcome to the World Baby Miller. We all love you more than you’ll ever know.” Amid a host of congratulatory posts from his cast members the couple then posted a snap of them as a family, they wrote: “Twice the worry, twice the love, twice the joy. We feel so lucky right now.”
Career away from soap
The 33-year-old soap star may be a familiar face as Aaron Dingle in Emmerdale but it looks as though he has turned his hand to narrating audiobooks – which are a favourite of his son Albert. Confirming the news, Danny took to X, formerly known as Twitter, to share the news with his fans. Back in July of last summer, he wrote: “Myself & @nigewingmanclucas are delighted to finally announce the release of ALBERTS BOOKSHELF!!.”
He added: “Please watch the video as it explains the bigger picture behind releasing our very own audiobooks of some of Albert’s Favourite books read by his Dad. If you’re lucky enough to be a parent of a child who loves books as much as Albert, this may give you a chance to just sit or lie back with them and let their imagination run free.”
He continued: “The comments are open for any constructive (key word) criticism. We’re looking to record more so will always take in the sensible ones and try and adapt as we do the same in this beautiful world of children and growing up.”
A previous version of this story was published on October 9, 2023.
