Ex-Coronation Street actor Chris Quinten has appeared on This Morning with his new fiancée to defend their age gap.
Chris is 61 and the news broke that he had proposed to 21-year-old Robyn Delabarre on her birthday earlier this week.
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The couple have been together for seven months and had to keep their romance a secret as Chris is the manager at the strip club where they both work.
Talking to hosts Phillip Schofield and Holly Willoughby, Chris and Robyn revealed her parents are aged just 38 and 40 – and have found the age gap between the pair “difficult”.
Robyn said: “Chris is much older but we had such a nice connection we just got on well, we spoke a lot.
“[My parents] found it really difficult at first. The big age gap. My mum is 38 and my dad’s 40. Now they’re so supportive of me.”
Chris then joked: “I could be your grandad!”
He went on to add: “I’ve spoken to the mum and they all love me thankfully. But we haven’t spoken to her dad yet, but he’s okay.”
The couple went on to discuss the future, with Phil bringing up the fact Chris is much older and how that could impact having kids.
“There are the practicalities of having a much older dad. Have you thought about that?” the host asked.
“I do think about this,” Robyn replied. “But I put that aside. I want children with him, when I’m ready.”
Chris added: “We’ll take the lead from Peter Stringfellow.
“He left two children, he left his wife with plenty of money and he gave her his blessing to find love, and I would do the same.”
Speaking about how they came to get together, Chris said: “I had never had any relationship with any of the girls at the club.
“But there was something about Robyn’s demeanour and personality and then she told me she was a nanny and I just thought ‘oh what a really good person’. I just fell in love with her personality.”
The engagement got off to a rocky start for the couple when Robyn was taken to hospital during a luxury getaway to celebrate.
She posted an update to her Facebook page that she had been admitted to hospital in Mykonos and hooked up to a drip, costing them £500.
Alongside a video of a hot tub, Robyn wrote: “Nice relaxing day with our hot tub and view after a horrible trip to A&E last night and me ending up on a drip that cost £500.
“Never a dull moment luckily he held my hand and cuddled up in the hospital bed with me always looking after me.”
She later replied to a friend’s comment that she was “all okay now” and had just had “really bad sunstroke”.
Chris who played Coronation Street’s Brian Tilsley, proposed to Robyn at her 21st birthday party.
The actor, who now manages Secrets, a strip club in London, got down on one knee in video footage shared by the bride-to-be on Facebook, and popped the question.
On her Facebook page, Robyn shared pictures from their holiday alongside a gushing post about her husband-to-be.
She wrote: “My husband to be! It’s been a CRAZY 7 months a secret we had to keep because of our jobs but you have made me the happiest girl alive your amazing to me I’m so lucky to have you in my life I’m so glad your mine I love you and I couldn’t care less what Anyone has to say I love you will all my heart thankyou for doing everything you do For me Chris❤️ [sic].”
Chris played Gail Rodwell‘s first husband from 1978 to 1989 before being dramatically killed off.
Chris had originally asked to be made a part-time character so he could move to the USA to marry his then-fiancée Leeza Gibbons, who was an American talk show host.
But the casting office refused his request and Brian was stabbed to death in February 1989 outside a nightclub.
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He moved to the US and managed to land a bit-part in Robocop 2.
Chris and Leeza married and had a daughter, but divorced in 1991.
He has since had roles in ITV sitcom Surgical Spirit, BBC soap Doctors and lots of pantomime gigs.
It was reported in 2016 that he was working at Stringfellows in London, before moving onto Secrets last year.
In 2006 he was cleared of a rape charge.
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