Emmerdale’s Jeff Hordley’s life with co-star wife from award-winning proposal to ‘therapeutic’ hobby

Emmerdale fans know Jeff Hordley’s bad boy reputation on the ITV show as Cain Dingle, who first made his way into the village 25 years ago.

He’s had his fair share of romance scandals over the years, including a tumultuous love affair with his cousin Charity Dingle (Emma Atkins).

Although he found love when he got together with Moira Dingle (Natalie J. Robb) and married her in 2014, it hasn’t been straight forward.

Recently, he cheated on his wife while she was having surgery for her brain tumour with his brother’s wife Ruby Fox-Miligan (Beth Cordingly).

However, in real life, the actor’s life is a far cry from Cain’s bad-boy persona. Jeff is married to his Emmerdale co-star Zoe Henry, who plays Rhona Goskirk on the ITV soap.

We’ve taken a look into the couple’s real-life relationship away from the drama of the Dales.

First meeting

Zoe and Jeff knew each other long before they both became part of the ITV soap. They first met while at the Manchester Metropolitan University School of Theatre back in 1994 and quickly became sweethearts. Zoe once recalled the moment she first met Jeff while speaking to Lorraine on her show.

She said: “We got together at drama school. We’ve been together 28 years. With the connection on set, we were together for 10 years before that as well. We got together in 1994, I believe.”

For Jeff, it looks as though it was love at first sight as he told Soaplife magazine back in 2011: “We met at drama school in 1994. I saw Zoe and realised she was the girl for me.”

At the time, Jeff was 23 and Zoe was 21 and he revealed she was the only person in college he wanted to be with. He added: “I made moves and, fortunately, she said yes on that occasion too.”

Sweet engagement

After years of being together, Jeff decided to pop the question on the same day that Zoe won the award for Best Actress in a Leading Role at the Manchester Evening News’s theatre awards back in 2022

At the time, Jeff confessed that he wasn’t sure Zoe would win, as she was up against big names such as Amanda Donohoe. However, if she did take home the title, he knew it would be a great end to the day.

The ITV star told Manchester Evening News: “I had been planning to propose for a some time and thought to myself: ‘If she wins today, I’ll do it today’. When she won, I leaped out of my seat in front of her. Then it dawned on me that her winning meant that I had to propose – and that’s when the nerves set in. Fortunately for me, she said yes.”

Private wedding

One year after getting engaged, Jeff and Zoe decided to tie the knot in an intimate ceremony. Before saying ‘I do’, the actor was firm about not getting much public attention on the day.

He said: “OK and Hello magazines won’t be there, no way. I like to keep my private life to myself. I just wouldn’t do that. I wouldn’t want to bring that kind of intrusive pressure on myself or on my family and my friends.”

The pair wed in the medieval Hedingham Castle before heading off to the Swan Hotel in Lavenham to celebrate the rest of the day. Many of their Emmerdale co-stars were in attendance, including the like of Emma Atkins, who plays Cain’s ex Charity Tate and Charley Webb, who plays his daughter Debbie.

Family life

Two years after getting married, the soap pair welcomed their first child together, a daughter called Violet. Not long after, their son Stan, who was born in 2008.

The family all live together in a gorgeous family home in the Yorkshire Dales with their two dogs. Zoe often shares snippets of their life off-camera on her social media. They seem to spend a large amount of time tending to their homegrown fruit and vegetables in their allotment.

In 2019, Zoe told the Sun’s Fabulous Magazine in 2019: “We have an allotment and it’s so therapeutic to have your hands in the earth. We’re mindful of what we eat, but watching our diet isn’t about being on TV, it’s more about general well-being, as Jeff has Crohn’s disease.”

Emmerdale is available to watch on ITVX