48 Facts About Fay Ripley

Fay Ripley was born on 26 February 1966 and is an English actress, television presenter and recipe author.

Fay Ripley is a graduate of the Guildhall School of Music and Drama.

In 1996, Fay Ripley was cast in her breakthrough role of Jenny Gifford in the ITV series Cold Feet.

Fay Ripley stayed with the show for three full series before leaving to take more varied roles and to spend more time with her family.

Fay Ripley returned for a guest appearance in the fifth series.

Fay Ripley returned to television in 2009, starring as human resources manager Christine Frances in the ITV comedy drama Monday Monday, and Nicola Perrin alongside Martin Clunes in BBC One's Reggie Perrin.

Fay Ripley was the only child from her parents' marriage but had several half-brothers and sisters from their new relationships.

Fay Ripley's father wanted her to have a good education so, despite the family's Protestant religion, sent her to various Catholic convent schools around the county.

Fay Ripley did not feel academically challenged there, and later declared the school mediocre.

At school, Fay Ripley enjoyed drama lessons, spurred on by the positive remarks she received from her drama teacher Susan Ford.

Fay Ripley basically made me feel very good about myself as a 15-year-old girl.

Fay Ripley's father wanted to send her to a finishing school in Switzerland but, in an effort to rebel from her middle class Home Counties background, Ripley instead went to a local state college in Surrey, where she took A-levels in communication studies, art, and drama.

The second scene featured De Niro himself, though Fay Ripley's character was lying dead in a mortuary throughout.

Pleased with what looked like her breakout role, Fay Ripley bought a dress for the premiere, though she was distraught when Branagh sent her a card apologising for cutting her scenes from the finished film.

In 1996, Fay Ripley auditioned for Granada Television's Cold Feet, a television pilot about the romances of three couples living in Manchester.

Fay Ripley believed she was reading for the role of Rachel, the "young, pretty one", and was surprised to discover that she was wanted for Jenny, the "northern housewife".

Fay Ripley won the role, and appeared opposite John Thomson and James Nesbitt in the programme.

Fay Ripley's supporting character from the pilot episode was given a bigger role in the series; in the first episode, Jenny gives birth to her first child.

At that time, Fay Ripley had never experienced childbirth, so copied birth scenes she had seen in other television series.

Fay Ripley asked the writer Mike Bullen to either kill off Jenny or have her lose a limb.

Fay Ripley returned to the series for a guest appearance in the final episode.

Fay Ripley returned to I Saw You for a three-episode miniseries in 2002.

Fay Ripley considers I Saw You, in which she acted alongside her husband Daniel Lapaine, the television show she is most proud to have worked on.

Fay Ripley researched her character, a murderer, by visiting a coroner.

Fay Ripley was initially not eager to play another character from around Manchester so soon after leaving Cold Feet, but she changed her mind after reading the script.

Fay Ripley did not research spousal abuse to play her character, a woman struggling to bring up her two children in a run-down house while her husband is imprisoned, because she did not find it difficult to "work out what it's like to be scared and want to protect your kids".

Also in 2002, Fay Ripley played Rose Bell in the ITV post-war period drama Dead Gorgeous, alongside Helen McCrory.

In 2004, Fay Ripley had her first of three on-screen partnerships with Martin Clunes, playing Jane White in the CBBC adaptation of Fungus the Bogeyman.

In 2006, Fay Ripley played the role of child abductor Linda Holder in the two-part ITV drama Bon Voyage, starring alongside Ben Miles, Rachael Blake and Daniel Ryan.

Fay Ripley was offered the part without having to audition, and took it because she wanted the opportunity to play an antagonist.

Fay Ripley liked the style of Canadian director John Fawcett in making the thriller, as it differed to that of other British thrillers, which she believed were poorly filmed.

Fay Ripley filmed the role in Canada during the later weeks of her second pregnancy, so her character was dressed in baggy clothes to hide her bump.

Fay Ripley's pregnancy caused changes to the script; originally her character was to run through a forest, fall off a cliff and "die a gruesome death".

Reviewing, Thomas Sutcliffe of The Independent and Gareth McLean of The Guardian noted that Fay Ripley's pregnancy was poorly disguised.

Fay Ripley took the role because she had previously worked with Clunes and the writer Simon Nye.

Fay Ripley reprised the role in the second series in 2010, after which the series was cancelled.

Fay Ripley took the role because it was different to characters she had previously played.

In 2007, Fay Ripley announced that she would be writing a cookbook about family food.

In November 2016, Fay Ripley guest presented an episode of The One Show with Alex Jones.

Fay Ripley guest presented an episode with Angela Scanlon in January 2017.

In late 2022, Fay Ripley made a return to the stage with The National Theatre's production of Kerry Jackson, in which she played the eponymous lead role.

Fay Ripley met English actor James Purefoy when the two were starring in the eponymous roles in a college production of Romeo and Juliet in 1983.

Fay Ripley was single for five years, before being introduced to Australian actor Daniel Lapaine at a party hosted by mutual friends.

Fay Ripley gave birth to the couple's first child, daughter Parker, in October 2002.

Fay Ripley gave birth to son Sonny in October 2006.

Fay Ripley visited Tanzania with ActionAid in October 2008 to raise awareness of child sponsorship.

Fay Ripley was already sponsoring a child and had been asked by ActionAid to participate in a visit but had always declined because of conflicts with her work.

Fay Ripley fronted a "Climate Action Now" protest with novelist Rebecca Frayn and actress Rula Lenska in 2008, opposing government support of the then planned third runway at Heathrow Airport.