Inside BBC EastEnders actor Jamie Borthwick’s love life as he’s linked to new co-star
EastEnders actor Jamie Borthwick, who plays Jay Brown in the long-running BBC soap, has sparked rumours he is dating his new co-star, 'Lola lookalike' Jazzy Phoenix
EastEnders star Jamie Borthwick has sparked rumours he is dating his new co-star – who is a dead ringer for Danielle Harold.
The 29-year-old, who plays Jay Brown in the BBC soap, got closed to Danielle when she played his on-screen wife Lola Pearce. But fans were gutted when Lola died from a brain tumour in tragic scenes aired in May this year. While Danielle, who is regularly pictured with Jamie on social media and recently shared snaps of their ‘date night’ together, hasn’t denied they were ever an item she revealed she finds the rumours about them being a real-life couple “amusing”.
“I’m just going to leave that one out there, because it’s too funny. It makes me laugh so much, I’d hate to squash it. I always say Jamie is the husband I never wanted or asked for, but nonetheless got,” Danielle teased in a recent interview. The 31-year-old, who has been tipped to be going into the next series of I’m A Celebrity… Get Me Out Of Here since leaving EastEnders, claimed she is currently single as she “has no time” to date.
New EastEnders character Nadine, played Jazzy Phoenix, has sparked real-life romance rumours with Jay (
BBC/Jack Barnes/Kieron McCarron)
So when fans saw a Lola lookalike pop up on EastEnders earlier this month, they were excited grieving widow Jay might get a second chance at love – but does the actor’s potential romance with new character Nadine (played by actress Jazzy Phoenix) spill over into real life?
Newcomer Jazzy plays a sex worker who Jay has turned to for comfort since losing Lola. But instead of having sex with her, he has been paying her to sleep next to him instead. There are fears his character will spiral into drug addiction after he asks Nadine for ketamine.
Since joining the soap in her breakout role, Jamie said he had taken 23-year-old Jazzy under his wing as she feared stepping on Lola actress Danielle’s toes as the previous character had created such an impact on the show.
Speaking to the Mirror at the Pride of Britain Awards, he revealed: “Jazzy who’s come in and played Nadine – do you know what, the best thing about that is she was so aware of Danielle’s space. She was like, ‘Oh I really don’t want to be treading on anyone’s toes here and I’m really aware that you’ve worked together for so long and you’ve got your little routine I really don’t want to get in her space’. I just thought that was great from her and she was fantastic, she was blinding.”
Danielle Harold, who played Lola in EastEnders, on her ‘date night’ with soap husband Jamie Borthwick (
Mike Marsland/WireImage)
He has also been spotted hanging out with new co-star and ‘Lola lookalike’ Jazzy off-screen (
Instagram)
Since their first scenes aired in September, Jamie has been spotted popping up on Jazzy’s social media feeds too. She posted a behind the scenes video of the two of them joking around on the Albert Square set. “Very grateful for such an exciting response to Nadine joining the square,” she wrote in the caption – and fans agreed. One commented: “You both make a good couple.” Another said: “This is the cutest” as a third chimed in: “Great onscreen chemistry to pair Jay with a [Lola] clone.”
Other fans speculated on what could be in store for Jay as his storyline with Nadine plays out. “So many questions – is Nadine in Jay’s imagination? Is Nadine real? Will they fall in love? Is she lovely or not lovely? It’s all a mystery,” said one. Whatever soap bosses have in store, Jazzy promised fans: “Don’t worry! You’ll be seeing plenty more of Nadine.”
And it seems Jamie has a bit of a thing for his co-stars as he previously admitted to being “in love” with actress Emma Barton, who plays Honey Mitchell in EastEnders. Their characters became a thing onscreen, but they later split due to the age gap between them saying they were “at different stages of their lives”.
But in real-life Jamie, who joined EastEnders in 2006, was here for the storyline and once told the TV Times: “I was about 14 when I first set eyes on Emma Barton. I fell in love with her long, shapely legs and I wanted to marry her.” He joked his co-star Perry Fenwick – who plays Billy Mitchell and Honey’s husband in the soap – dared him to chat Emma up but it all went wrong. Jamie confessed: “I remember walking over to her and saying, ‘Alright darlin’, wow, you smell nice.’ It brought the house down and we still laugh about it now.”
