Soap fans shocked to realise connection between Emmerdale’s Caleb star and Corrie’s Paul actor
Fans are shocked to discover that two soap ITV stars are related, William Ash, famed for his part in Emmerdale and Peter Ash, who starred in Coronation Street are family
Fans have found the link between the stars behind Corrie’s Paul and Emmerdale’s Caleb
Emmerdale star William Ash has been captivating fans since 2022 playing cunning Caleb Milligan. And in the other ITV soap, poor Peter Ash’s character, Paul Foreman, has just died following his battle with motor neurone disease. While the brilliant actors share a last name – most viewers don’t know the pair are related, reports OK!
Will and Peter are actually cousins! In 2022, when Emmerdale announced Will’s casting, Peter confirmed they are related. He wrote: “Yes! This is my cousin, Will! He’s an absolutely fantastic actor, and was one of my big inspirations for getting into acting myself! Can’t wait to see him do his stuff in #Emmerdale!”.
Emmerdale star Will Ash is the cousin of Coronation Street’s Peter Ash ( Image: ITV)
On the post, fans took to the comments to voice their surprise. One said: “No way, I had no idea he’s your cousin, well fantastic acting definitely runs in the family”. Another added: “Strong famalam genes!! You look very alike!”. A third said: “Your cousin! No way, he’s a great actor”. A fourth wrote: “I ‘googled’ you both earlier when I saw #Emmerdales’ Tweet, (before I saw your post). I actually thought you were brothers coz you look so alike. And yep google told me cousins”.
Last year, when asked about his cousin stepping into the world of soaps, Peter told The Metro: “He’s doing great work. I’m loving it. I’m loving it, go on the Ash’s”. Before there was Emmerdale for Peter’s cousin Will, there was Waterloo Road where he played the troubled school’s deputy headteacher Chris Mead who had a relationship with a schoolgirl his boss daughter.
At that time, Will joked to Inkpellet about some irony surrounding his landing of the gig: “I phoned my sister one day while she was at school and she answered the phone. I said, you’re not in a class, are you? And she replied, No Will, I wouldn’t answer the phone in class this is not Waterloo Road!”.
William Ash played Chris Mead on Waterloo Road between 2009 and 2011 ( Image: Shed Productions/BBC)
During his acting career, Will has starred in Soldier Soldier, Where the Heart Is, Clicking off And Hush. He also appeared in Coronation Street as Spike for just one episode when he was just 10 years old. Peter on the other hand, starred as Darius Fry in Footballers’ Wives between 2003 and 2006. He had appeared in Coronation Street since 2018 but was killed-off earlier this month.
His character was diagnosed with motor neurone disease, for which there is no cure. On watching his final scenes, Peter told the Manchester Evening News: “It was very odd [watching it]. I’ve never played a character on telly who has died before so that was a strange one. But I’m sure it [his exit] will start sinking in now.”
Peter’s character, Paul, was killed-off earlier this month ( Image: ITV)
He added: “It was very odd. It was the first time I’ve seen it. You rarely see episodes until they air unless there’s a press thing… As I said I’ve never seen myself as a character die before so it’s very strange.”
