'EastEnders' Debbie Arnold Reveals She's Found Love Again at 70 with a Man Nine Years Her Junior After Meeting at a Funeral

Veteran soap actress Debbie Arnold has opened up about finding unexpected romance at 70 — and the story of how it all began is one nobody could have predicted.

She has graced some of Britain's most beloved soap operas for decades — but it turns out Debbie Arnold's most extraordinary story isn't one she's ever had to act out.

The veteran actress, best known for her roles across "EastEnders", "Coronation Street", "Emmerdale" and "Hollyoaks", has revealed she has fallen deeply in love at 70 with a man nine years her junior — someone she met, of all places, at a funeral.

Arnold, who has been married twice before, says this relationship is unlike anything she has ever experienced, and she is not shy about sharing it with the world.

Speaking on the Channel 5 daytime show "Vanessa", Arnold told host Vanessa Feltz how the romance unfolded — beginning with a chance encounter at a wake.

"I met this man and it was like boom, it was just unbelievable," she said. "It was actually at the wake of this funeral and I was sitting beside this man and I thought 'he's really nice'."

The connection was immediate, though Arnold admits she was hardly on the lookout. In fact, she revealed she even delivered a rather blunt assessment of her future partner early in the evening.

"Apparently I put my hand on his knee and said you're too old for me at one point," she laughed — a remark that, in hindsight, could hardly have been wider of the mark, given that he is in fact nine years younger than her.

It was at the funeral of a close friend's mother that the two had struck up conversation. Arnold described him as "quite serious and quite funny" — someone who was, simply, "really lovely."

Rather than making an overt move, she did things the old-fashioned way. She asked a mutual friend to find out whether he was single, and left a message: if he was, he should give her a call. He did — eventually — and the pair arranged to meet for a dog walk. The rest, as they say, is history.

"He kissed me when I got out of my car and it was like 'oh my goodness, I'm in big trouble here,'" Arnold recalled. "I could just tell from the first second."

What makes the story all the more charming is that her new partner would not, by Arnold's own admission, have been her usual type. He has no hair, for one thing — something she had always assumed would be a dealbreaker.

She joked that on a dating app, she would have swiped left without a second thought. And, as the older of the two, she suspected he wouldn't have gone for her either. But meeting in person, without the filters and tick-boxes of modern dating, changed everything.

"That's why these dating apps are so ridiculous because they say you're this age, you're that age," she said. "But really, if you find someone attractive, you don't care how old they are."

Arnold, who playfully called herself a "cougar" on the show, has been equally candid in the press. Comparing herself to "Great British Bake Off" judge Prue Leith, who found love in her later years, Arnold told Best magazine:

"I'm like Prue Leith, she found the love of her life at 70, too. A bit like me. I'm a cougar, darling. He's only 61!"

But underneath the wit and the laughter, there is something altogether more heartfelt at the core of this story. When asked how it felt to fall head over heels at 70, Arnold was remarkably candid.

"I don't think I've ever been in love before," she said quietly. "I thought I did. But this is different."

Asked to describe the feeling, she was equally unguarded. "It feels like the other half of me," she explained.

When pressed on whether she meant her new partner completed her, she replied, "Yes, which sounds ridiculous. And he drives me crazy, and I drive him crazy — it's not like it's all perfect. But there's something about someone who gets you."

The two spend a great deal of time simply being together — doing nothing in particular, sharing laughs, enjoying each other's company. It is, by Arnold's account, the easiest and most natural relationship of her life.

She has described her new man as "the love of my life" and says she has no doubt about the future.

"I just know he is the one," she said. "I'm an optimist. A glass half full person. If for any reason I'm wrong, well, hope springs eternal."

Then, with characteristic warmth, she added, "My secret love's no secret any more."

Arnold has been married twice previously. Her first marriage was to actor John Challis — beloved for his role as Boycie in "Only Fools and Horses" — which lasted from 1981 to 1985.

She later married actor and theatre director David Janson in 1989; the couple, who have two daughters together — actress Ciara Janson and Talia — divorced in 2002.

Now, more than two decades on from her last marriage, Arnold appears more content than ever. The actress, who holds the distinction of being the only performer to have appeared as a regular character in every major British TV soap over the past 30 years, has clearly saved her most captivating storyline for real life.

And by the sound of it, she wouldn't have it any other way.