Fair City stars Shane Quigley Murphy and Connie Doona have announced they are expecting their first child together.
The actors, who play Gareth Boyle and Zoe Allen in the Irish soap, discovered the happy news back in December – shortly after Shane started training for RTÉ’s Dancing with the Stars.
During an interview with RSVP Magazine, Connie said: “We found out about two weeks before Christmas, and it was the best present ever. It was an exciting Christmas for all the family.”
“Poor Shane got a FaceTime out of the blue. I had Covid the week before and I said to him, ‘My Covid test is negative, but I’ve done another test and this one is more positive.'”
“He got a taxi from town all the way out to Roundwood in Wicklow, where I’m from. As soon as we saw each other we were totally ready for it and so excited. We had very joyous giggles, and it was a very surreal moment for us.”
Shane added: “I had just started Dancing With The Stars, we were a week-and-a-half in.”
He continued: “I wouldn’t say I was shocked because we put two and two together. We decided if this was happening, it was happening. I knew that we were ready for this and she would be the best person to raise a child with.”
The pair first hit it off as friends working on Fair City, but things soon turned romantic.
Connie said: “We decided quite early on that we wanted to raise a family. We felt that deep connection.”
They also revealed their bosses on Fair City have very supportive, and said: “When we told them the news they were really happy because they thought we were telling them that we were leaving.”
The couple joked about choosing baby names, as being actors makes it more difficult.
Connie said: “Shane is more reasonable, whereas I’m like ‘No’! I’ve found it hard to pick out boys’ names for some reason.”
“We won’t decide until the baby arrives, but we’re big fans of Irish names and we love Irish mythology.
“We were recommended to use this app called Kinder, it’s like Tinder [dating app] but for picking baby names.”
Shane said: “We’ve a mad list for girls, but we’ve only one standing out for a boy.”
While Shane and Connie struck up their romance last summer, they didn’t publicly share that they were dating until January of this year.
Shane previously told The Irish Sun: “We met on the show and we didn’t tell anyone. I had a break in filming around the same time as we started seeing each other.
“So we had a very fortunate three months to almost speed up that early stage of getting to know each other so we went from meeting each other as friends from there and it just blossomed.”
Their colleagues eventually found out about their relationship, and Shane said “everyone was so overwhelmingly positive.”
“Connie is such a wonderful soul,” he gushed. “Connie is a great actor and a hard worker, and smart and conscientious but also kind; doing little things like remembering birthdays and bringing in cards and chocolates for people she hadn’t seen in a while.”
“So when they (the cast) saw we paired up, everyone was so overwhelmingly positive. But you don’t want to push it down people’s throats but everyone has been happy for us. I think the cast reacted really well.”
Shane continued: “We have been seeing each other seven or eight months now but it feels like I have known her all my life.
“I count myself as fortunate because coming out of other relationships and coming through struggles in our own lives to find someone like that it’s a blessing.”
“We both came out of long relationships and it was one of those things, we were meeting as friends initially, as peers, on a similar level both as human beings and as artists.”
“Having goals that aligned and what I have with her is a beautiful bond. We get on as human beings. She is my best friend.”
