Actress Leah Bracknell’s widower has begun dating again two years on from her tragic passing from lung cancer.
Jez Hughes was married to the star, best known for her role as Zoe Tate on Emmerdale, until her death in September 2019 at the age of 55.
Now the 47-year-old has revealed to pals that he has been in a relationship with Precious Dunlop since April of this year.
The new couple have recently gone on a camping trip together and their friends are said to be thrilled that the pair have found one another.
A source said: “Jez’s friends are delighted for him and have wished them both well.”
(Image: Getty Images)
They added: “It’s been such a heartbreaking time losing Leah, but he is back in a happy place and is enjoying life once more.”
Jez and Leah married in 2017, six months after they learned that her cancer was incurable and inoperable.
The pair had been together for 13 years and married in a small and intimate civil ceremony in Horsham, West Sussex on March 10.
(Image: The People)
Jez nursed Leah as she battled the disease and also helped to raise fund for her experimental treatment.
Speaking about Jez, Leah had previously said: “My husband is like my rock. He is by my side a lot of the time. He has been a great sounding board.
“I think we support each other as well. My family do OK. I’m not positive all the time, but I am optimistic.”
(Image: Facebook)
Jez has said that he watched old episodes of Emmerdale to feel closer to Leah, after her passing.
Leah starred in the soap for almost 16 years, famously playing the first lesbian character in British soaps.
On the one-year-anniversary of her death, Jez told Loose Women: “”It helps me connect with her. It feels important to connect with that part of her.
“There’s moments, if there’s an emotional scene in the programme I know those moments, I know those facial expressions, that touches somewhere deep inside me.”
He added that his religion had brought him comfort after her death, saying: “She’s in a different world, it’s a bit further away.
“It’s more distant but it doesn’t mean death is a defining end, it’s a transition and I’m intensely grateful that I’ve got that, we do move on to different lives and places.”
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Source: Celebrities - dailystar.co.uk
