Moira Dingle has had her fair share of romantic connections on Emmerdale.
The character - played by Natalie J Robb - has been married twice, firstly to John, who she tied the knot with in 1990, before she ended up dating and going on to marry Cain Dingle ( Jeff Hordley ).
The pair have split a few times but at present are stronger than ever despite the struggles the family have faced with Kyle and his court hearing as of late.
Actress Natalie has been very open about her love life, explaining why her romance with her co-star ended and how she sometimes feels judged for not having children or being single at the age of 48.
Co-star romance
Actress Natalie dated Johnny McPherson, who plays Dr Liam Cavanagh. The pair struck up a relationship during the lockdown period and soon they moved in with one another after growing close.
The pair started off as friends but she feels moving in together was their downfall as things got "too intense too soon".
"Unfortunately, it was Covid times, so there was this added pressure. He moved in with me during the first lockdown and it was just too intense, too soon," she explained to The Sun of the end of their romance.
"And if you’re not used to that, which I hadn’t been for a while, we realised pretty quickly that we were better off as friends."
Feeling judged
Natalie - who has been in the ITV soap since 2009 - explained how she felt "judged" at times for not being a parent, whilst others passed judgement on her for being single in her late 40s.
However, she insists having a baby isn't something that she's ever wanted to rush into, and wouldn't want to do it alone.
"I used to get judged for not having children. People would be like: ‘What? You don’t have any kids and you’re single? You must be crazy.’ But I just never had that feeling of: ‘Oh my god, I’ve got to have a baby,'" she explained.
"It has to be the right situation – I didn’t want to go and do something like that on my own."
Dating woes
Despite feeling judged, Natalie insists she won't be rushing into a new romance any time soon - and she won't be on the dating apps.
"I have no time to date anyway. I would rather wait for the right person to come along, I’m not in a hurry," she told The Mirror in 2017, "I am definitely not on Tinder or anything like that. Oh my goodness. Could you imagine Mucky Moira popping up on someone’s phone?
"Nothing against other people who want to do that, but I’ll wait for the right person to come along."
She explained: "I don’t know whether it is with social media now, but the dating scene and apps like Tinder have stopped people going out to meet as much as they used to do. I would rather meet someone by the way, fate bringing us together."
Revealing who her dream man would be, she shared: "Who would be my dream man? One who doesn’t talk back to me, one that can put me in my place. Somebody honest, loyal and who makes me laugh."
