Anyone who thinks they can come between Michelle Keegan and her dogs is barking up the wrong tree – and that even includes husband Mark Wright.
The hot showbiz couple celebrate their sixth wedding anniversary tomorrow but it could have been a very different story if he hadn’t got on with her pets.
Because actress Michelle, 33, admits dachshund Phoebe and chihuahua Pip are the top loves of her life.
But, as she shared yappy family photos with fans on social media, she revealed how a shared puppy love brought her and former Towie star Mark, 34, together.
Michelle said: “I am a massive dog lover. My sausage dog has been with me since I was 21.
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“Until you get your own dog you don’t realise how much love you have for your pets.
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“Mark is a dog person, massively. He had to be to even go on a date with me. The most important things in my life are my dogs.”
The former Our Girl and Coronation Street star spent lockdown belting out karaoke tunes and completing jigsaws of dogs.
She said: “I was a jigsaw girl in lockdown. I did about 13 or 14. The last one I did was of a vet with loads of dogs around him.
“My mum is a massive jigsaw fan... I have always associated it with being relaxed so I ordered a few on Amazon. I also have been doing karaoke. I would get the karaoke machine out and sing until the early hours of the morning.”
She also turned her attentions to Mark and gave his hair a clip.
But the grooming session turned into a bit of a disaster.
Michelle said: “It was so bad. That was in the first lockdown.
“You know Peaky Blinders? It was like that. It was uneven, all over the shop. In the end we had to shave it all off. He had to have a skinhead because of me.”
Michelle and Heart radio presenter Mark met in 2012 while they were on holiday in Dubai. They went on their first date just days later, when they got back to the UK.
At first the couple – affectionately called “Marchelle” by fans – tried to keep their romance secret and even walked separately along the red carpet at the 2013 National Television Awards.
But loved-up Mark revealed all later that year when he posted a string of snaps of the pair kissing, along with the caption: “Forever.”
He proposed nine months after their first meeting and described Michelle as “what every boy dreams of – affection in a relationship, love, best friend, a girl I fancy everything rolled into one”.
The pair weathered storms, including a spat with Mark’s childhood ex Lauren Goodger, and had a lavish wedding in 2015.
Michelle, who played Tina McIntyre in Corrie and Army medic Georgie Lane in the BBC One drama Our Girl, is now starring as Erin in Sky One comedy drama Brassic.
She has just finished filming the latest series, but says she found some of it so tough she thought about giving up acting.
She said: “We were doing night shoots in February when it was snowing...the weather was really bad and we literally moaned from start to finish. When we were there we hated every second of it.
“I was actually contemplating why I chose to become an actor.
“We were filming a girls’ night out and we had to wear dresses, no jackets, heels. In between takes we had to put thermals on.
“That put me in a very bad mood. You will be able to tell when you watch it, in my eyes.
“We finished filming a couple of weeks ago. We were supposed to film over four months, but because of Covid we had a few pushbacks and filmed for seven.”
She added: “It was good, as I had a bit of normality in my life. But I could not see my loved ones and I found that difficult.”
Busy Michelle and Mark are reunited at the moment as they notch up six years together.
But he’s getting ready to release a new book and Michelle – who has just filmed her latest fashion collection for Very – will be back filming Brassic in July.
She said: “It’s a tight window so at the moment I’m enjoying life at home with family and friends.”
