Maureen Lipman: 'I have new soulmate'

Veteran actress Maureen Lipman has revealed that she has found a second soulmate.

The 63-year-old TV and stage star's first husband Jack Rosenthal, to whom she was married for 30 years, died of bone marrow cancer in 2004.

However, in a new interview with Yours magazine, Lipman revealed that she has found love for a second time with Italian-born Guido Castro.

"I am totally sorted. I'm very happy with my gentleman friend. And I am also very grateful to have met two soulmates in my one life," she said.

"Sometimes I think these things are out of our control and are ordained from a storyline somewhere. But I don't question it. As long as it's good, it's got to be better than facing life alone."

She added: "I was never really any good at the whole thing, so I never expected to be in a relationship again. But one can only live in the moment, because one is surrounded by friends who are bereaved or having chemo, or you just hardly dare draw breath."

The pair met at a dinner party of a mutual friend and were first seen in public together last year, when Lipman was starring in a production of A Little Night Music in the West End.