'EastEnders' lovebirds still going strong

EastEnders star Kara Tointon has insisted that her relationship with former co-star James Alexandrou has not been affected by his decision to quit the show.

The actress, who plays Dawn Swann on the BBC One soap, started dating James (Martin Fowler) after splitting from Dream Team's Terry Kiely in May 2006.

Although James filmed his final scenes for the show at the beginning of this year, Kara has insisted that they still spend the same amount of time together.

"People think we spent all our time together when he was on the show. But I never filmed many scenes with him, so it's not much different now," Kara told the Daily Star. "He's doing really well and we are both very happy together."