Emer Kenny & Rick Edwards Had A Proper Meet-Cute

Channel 4’s newest comedy series The Curse begins this week with actors Allan Mustafa, Hugo Chegwin, Steve Stamp, and Tom Davis playing a group of hopeless petty criminals who find themselves in the middle of a high-stakes gold robbery. Luckily, on-hand to help them is Natasha, a sharp, streetwise café owner who is forced to step in when the men lose their nerve. Played by actor and writer Emer Kenny, who TV lovers will know from her time on Eastenders and Father Brown. Plus, radio fans may recognise the name thanks to her husband Rick Edwards, who occasionally shares funny anecdotes about their time together on his Radio 5 Live show. And, for anybody swooning over this showbiz couple as much as we are, you may be excited to hear that Emer Kenny and Rick Edwards had a good old-fashioned meet cute.

Speaking to Bustle ahead of The Curse’s premiere on Feb. 6, Kenny revealed that she and Edwards actually met through a famous mutual friend: writer and actor Jessie Cave. “Jessie was doing a stand-up show and I was actually setting her up on a date. This was years and years ago,” Emer says (2013, to be precise). “So I had brought a friend to see Jessie. And then Rick walked in.”

Through laughs, Kenny explains, “I had never met Rick before but, for some reason, I decided to do a peace sign. Like, a Spice Girls peace sign.” Edwards came over to introduce himself and the rest is history. In fact, the pair were actually engaged seven weeks later.

The couple eventually married in 2016 in London’s Kew Gardens surrounded by family and friends – including Cave (who made a speech) and Edwards’ ex-co host Alexa Chung. Both Kenny and Edwards share a number of adorable (and often hilarious) snaps across social media of their antics together – including their self-care routine and travels abroad. Speaking to Bustle about their relationship, Kenny says they are “partners in everything” – and Edwards has said similarly adorable things in the past.

Kenny’s off-screen marriage is certainly worlds away from the one we see between Natasha and Albert Fantoni (Allan Mustafa) in The Curse. After years of money troubles and now a multi-million-pound stack of gold to shift, the couple definitely show some stresses and strains, with Albert whimpering in the corner while Natasha takes charge. You can see this dynamic play out across six episodes of The Curse on Channel 4.