Rivals star Bella Maclean was pictured with her new boyfriend, artist Ted Hansen, in Mojacar, Spain, on Friday, days before her co-star Emily Atack's wedding in the same town.
Maclean, 28, plays the doe-eyed Taggie O'Hara, who pines after the dashing Rupert Campbell-Black, in the hit television adaptation of Jilly Cooper's bonkbuster novel Rivals. The series, based on the first of Cooper's Rutshire Chronicles novels, premiered on Disney+ in 2024 and became one of the streamer's biggest UK hits, known for its raunchy tone and lavish 1980s setting. Maclean wore a baseball cap and blue shorts as she and Hansen went for lunch in the Spanish hilltop town.
A source told the Daily Mail: "They have been dating for a while and were all over each other watching Spandau Ballet's Tony Hadley perform and she was stroking his hair back in May, he looked very proud of her." The source added: "They seemed very happy together." Hadley is the former lead singer of Spandau Ballet, the British band behind hits including "Gold" and "True."
The couple were joined in Mojacar by Maclean's Rivals co-stars Alex Hassell and Victoria Smurfit. Hassell is known for his stage work with the Royal Shakespeare Company, while Smurfit is an Irish actress whose earlier credits include the drama series Ballykissangel.
Ted Hansen's Career as an Artist
Hansen works full-time as an artist, producing what have been described as comically surreal wall hangings, having studied at Falmouth and Leeds University.
Maclean has had a busy year. After ten months of shooting Rivals, she recently returned from Mississippi, in the southern United States, where she had been working on a forthcoming independent film, In Starland.
Emily Atack's Wedding to Dr Alistair Garner
Atack is due to marry Dr Alistair Garner for a second time, in a star-studded wedding in Spain. The actress first found fame as a teenager playing Charlotte Hinchcliffe in the sitcom The Inbetweeners and has since become a well-known television presenter and podcast host. She was spotted in Mojacar showing family and close friends the wedding set-up, which includes the courtyards of two neighbouring restaurants she has rented for the occasion.
The ceremony is due to take place at a 16th-century church, with around 200 guests expected to attend. Atack appeared relaxed in a vintage floral dress from the archival collection of Diane von Furstenberg, the American fashion designer known for her signature wrap dress, paired with Prada sunglasses.
Outside the church, staff were seen delivering cases of Cava priced at £18 a bottle, along with boxes of beer, wine and spirits for an after-party that Atack's Rivals castmates are due to attend.
Rivals Castmates Arrive Ahead of the Ceremony
Hassell, who plays Rupert Campbell-Black opposite Atack in the show's naked tennis scene, touched down in the southeastern Spanish province the night before with his wife, Emma King. The 46-year-old actor, wearing a tan T-shirt and jeans, was seen running through Almeria Airport before taking a chauffeured car for the hour-long drive to Mojacar.
Smurfit, who plays Aidan Turner's on-screen wife Maud O'Hara in Rivals, was also spotted hiring a car at the airport with her husband, Steve Jacobs. Rufus Jones, who plays Atack's on-screen husband Paul Stratton, was seen sightseeing with his wife, Philippa Allam, ahead of the ceremony.
Holding her wedding in Mojacar, a whitewashed hilltop town on Spain's Almeria coast long popular with British holidaymakers, has been a dream for Atack, who spent her childhood summers at her father's property in the area.
