Lisa Faulkner's EastEnders star ex-husband who played one of scariest men on Albert Square

TV star Lisa Faulkner was once married to an actor best known for his villainous role on EastEnders, before meeting and falling in love with John Torode. Ex MasterChef host John, 59, has hit the headlines after he named himself as the person behind an upheld allegation of using racist language.

Although he came forward as the person in the report accused of using an offensive slur in the workplace, John has insisted "he has no recollection of the alleged incident and does not believe that it happened". He was later sacked from MasterChef.

Last night, Torode sensationally discovered he had been booted off the BBC cooking programme after 20 years through BBC News. He claimed he was never contacted by the BBC or MasterChef's production company Banijay about their decision not to renew his contract.

The decision came just hours after Torode unmasked himself as the person accused of using racist language on set. Torode claimed he had no memory of making the comment and denies it ever happened.

Amid the ongoing scandal, Lisa has remained quiet and her Saturday cooking show with Torode on ITV continues to remain on air. Despite the loss of his MasterChef role, Torode can credit the BBC show with changing his life as he even met Lisa while filming.

At the time, Lisa and Torode were both married when she took part on Celebrity MasterChef in 2010. They both insisted there was nothing romantic between them but a few years later, when they were both single, the MasterChef judge asked Lisa out on a date.

Before her marriage to Torode, Lisa was previously wed to Chris Coghill, who played Tony King in EastEnders. Tony was married to Bianca Jackson and was sexually abusing her daughter Whitney Dean for years before he was outed and later arrested for his crimes. The sickening storyline was the first time child sexual abuse had been the subject matter in a UK soap – and is still talked about today, with Whitney repeatedly referencing the abuse throughout her time in Walford, before she eventually left Albert Square in 2024.

EastEnders star Chris and Lisa, who met on the set of Burn It, adopted a daughter together named Billie in 2006 after candidly sharing their IVF journey. However, Lisa and Chris' romance came to an end in 2011. Last year, Lisa opened up toGood Housekeeping about how she navigated her new romance with Torode while raising her daughter and made a rare comment on her split.

"We took things really slowly because of Billie, and also because I'd been through the end of a marriage – we had a child and I felt I'd failed in something I never wanted to fail at," she said.

"I never give up on anything, so when you do have to accept that something didn't work, starting a new relationship is a big leap of faith."

Despite being head over heels for Torode now, Lisa wasn't so sure to begin with. "He was a judge on a show I loved and I was petrified of him. He was brilliant and gave us all tips so you didn't want to let him down," Lisa previously said.

"All I could think was, 'That sauce hasn't worked'. I didn't see anything but food for three months. After I won, we did The Good Food Show and stuff. John and I always got on, but I never thought about me and him."

Revealing how they eventually got together, Lisa told the Daily Mail in 2013 that everything changed after John wrote her a letter and asked her out to dinner. "John and I were friends. Neither of us thought of it as anything else until..." she said. "I don't know how things change, but something does.

"He asked me on a date. We went out for dinner. Then it was slightly different. I'm really, really happy. John and I are having such a nice time but we're taking things slowly. There are lots of other people to consider."

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