Ruth Jones’ estranged husband David Peet is dating a 46-year-old lookalike of the Gavin & Stacey star – who lives in a tiny village in British Columbia, Canada.
The former couple announced on Wednesday their 27-year marriage is over, claiming they split 18 months ago and are now ‘legally separated’.
But MailOnline can reveal Peet, 71, has now relocated to Canada to be with education assistant Jayne Charity Cook, who has made her relationship with the TV exec public via her Facebook page – which has a cosy snap of the pair set as her profile picture.
When MailOnline approached Cook near her home in Port Hardy, British Columbia, which has a population of just over 4,000 people, the day before Jones and Peet released their split statement to ask if she was in a relationship with Peet, she did not want to comment.
Cook, who describes herself as ‘a MommaBear and being a great Friend, Lover, Partner, Daughter, Sister’, also posted snaps of herself and Peet on her Threads profile in April.
She captioned the post: ‘Spent the weekend with my love and had an amazing time.’
Ruth Jones’ estranged husband David Peet is dating a 46-year-old lookalike of the Gavin & Stacey star – who lives in a tiny village in British Columbia, Canada
The former couple announced on Wednesday their 27-year marriage is over, claiming they split 18 months ago and are now ‘legally separated’ (Ruth and David pictured)
The 45-year-old has two adult children – Alexander and Isabella – and is a doting grandmother to Alexander’s son and Isabella’s two girls.
She has worked as an Education Assistant at the Gwa’sala-‘Nakwaxda’xw School on the Tsulquate Reserve since 2016.
Jones, 58, is stepmother to Peet’s three children from a previous relationship – Fiona, 35, Louise, 33 and Alex, 31 – and the former couple split their time between their two properties in Cardiff and the Scottish Highlands, where they own a holiday home.
Announcing their break-up on Wednesday, the former couple wrote a joint statement, saying: ‘We amicably went our separate ways 18 months ago and are now legally separated. We remain good friends.
‘Since our separation, Ruth is living in London and David is living in Canada, where he is in a new relationship.’
The split had come as a surprise to her industry friends who believed their marriage was one of the safest in showbiz.
An insider told MailOnline: ‘This has come as a huge shock to people in the industry.
‘They have always been incredibly private, nobody has an indication there were issues between them.’
But MailOnline can reveal Peet, 71, has now relocated to Canada to be with education assistant Jayne Charity Cook, who has made their relationship public via her Facebook page
The split had come as a surprise to Ruth’s industry friends who believed their marriage was one of the safest in showbiz (pictured in May)
They added: ‘The fact David has already moved on suggests the marriage may have been over for some time.
‘You can’t help but feel for Ruth – she’s had such a great year as well professionally.’
Jones has made a string of appearances without her wedding ring in recent months, including on stage at the Bath Literary Festival in May, where she was promoting her new novel, By Your Side.
Intriguingly, the book centres around a recent divorcee, Linda, who Ruth says is loosely based on herself – fuller-figured teetotal woman in her 50s.
She told her audience Linda had recently abandoned a long marriage after realising she had become ‘friends’ with her husband, but triggered a break up after he had an affair with a work colleague.
Jones added: ‘The other thing I really love about her is that she [Linda] was married and she got divorced and she gets on fine with her ex-husband.
‘It was never a really great big romantic marriage. They got on fine. They had a good sex life but that was kind of it.
‘They were good friends. When he [the husband] went off with Denise at his place of work, and ran off to run a cafe in Spain called Doolallies, she was quite happy to see him go.’
Their split comes as Jones’s iconic character Nessa finally married on-off lover Smithy, played by co-writer James Corden, in the 2024 Christmas Special of Gavin & Stacey, watched by 12.3million viewers.
The episode, titled The Finale, was the last ever instalment of the comedy classic, which first aired in 2007. She previously worked with Peet on the 2009 Gavin & Stacey Christmas Special.
Her performance in the 2024 Christmas Special of Gavin & Stacey earned Jones a BAFTA for best female performance in a comedy last month, where she was wearing her wedding ring
Jones omitted Peet from her acceptance speech after collecting her BAFTA in May, in which she paid a huge tribute to her writing partner Corden whom she said: ‘I love you James’
Her performance as the no-nonsense Welsh fantasist earned Jones a BAFTA for best female performance in a comedy last month, where she was wearing her wedding ring.
National institution Jones and Peet first met while filming a pilot episode of a BBC comedy and the actress once admitted in an interview her future partner was in another relationship at the time – and getting together sparked his divorce from the mother of his three children, who are all now in their 30s.
She said: ‘Affairs cause a lot of pain, they’re not something one aspires to do. You don’t aspire to cause pain to people in their life.’
They married in 1999 and went onto work with each other again, co-creating Jones’s Sky comedy Stella, in which she plays the title character – a struggling single mother – which ran for 58 episodes from 2012.
In 2008, they co-founded production company Tidy Productions – named after Jones’s Gavin & Stacey catchphrase – which made Stella, plus they also co-produced the comedy star’s Radio Wales show Sunday Brunch in the same year.
However, Peet and two business associates recently set up a new film production company called Toffee International with TV exec giving a correspondence address – for the first time – in Inverkirkaig in the far remote north west Highlands of Scotland.
Jones is not a part of this new company.
Away from the television industry, Peet owns a restaurant located near their holiday home in Lochinver, a pretty fishing village in the north-west coast of the Scottish Highlands.
The eatery – called Peets – is one of just a handful of attractions in the region and sits on a sheltered bay on the edge of Loch Inver, offering spectacular views of the 2,389 feet high Mount Suilven.
MailOnline revealed earlier this month Jones is frequently seen waiting tables, serving food and drink, when she’s in the area, which she uses as an escape from her hectic work life.
Georgia Riggins, 24, who works at Peet’s restaurant said: ‘Ruth has been known to do a couple of shifts in the restaurant when she’s up here and we’ve been told that she’s coming again in July.
‘She’s not been coming as much recently but that’s because she’s probably busy with her work.
‘David comes up here more often. He’s a lovely man and great to work for. Everybody around here knows how famous Ruth is and when’s she’s working in the restaurant is happy to pose for selfies with the tourists. But the locals don’t bother her.’
Jones is often seen walking around the village enjoying its breath-taking scenery, popping into its only convenience store or visiting a van parked by the village hall to buy fish and locally caught langoustines.
David and Ruth are in their eleventh year of running their popular fish restaurant. They bought a holiday home in the village in 2013 and then purchased the eaterie the following year
During the summer months the showbiz couple’s restaurant is packed out with diners
Diners at Ruth’s restaurant in Scotland sometimes get a shock when Nessa serves them food
David McDonald, 51, who drives around the Highlands selling local seafood told MailOnline: ‘I supply fish to Peet’s, and Ruth has also come to my van to buy fish.
‘I must admit that I’ve never watched Gavin and Stacey, but I know she’s very famous and can tell you what fish she likes.
‘It’s very quiet and beautiful around here and couldn’t be more different from Ruth’s celebrity life.
‘She’s famous for her love of Wales but the Highlands are very dear to her too but not a lot of people know that.’
Peet purchased the restaurant in 2014, the year after they bought their holiday home closeby for £240,000.
Their other home is a semi-detached mock Tudor semi overlooking leafy Roath Park in one of Cardiff’s most sought after suburbs, worth over £1million, which they’ve lived in for 24 years.
Jones omitted Peet from her acceptance speech after collecting her BAFTA in May, in which she paid a huge tribute to the cast and crew of Gavin & Stacey, namely her writing partner Corden whom she said: ‘I love you James, I love writing with you and long may it continue.’
