John Partridge: I will never return to Eastenders and I’m happy enough with my civil partnership
Former EastEnders actor John Partridge has ruled out returning to the BBC 1 soap and says he doesn’t like being asked if he intends to change his civil partnership into a marriage – once the law is reformed in England and Wales.
The Metro asked the 43-year-old gay actor the question during an interview about his new West End show ‘A Chorus Line’ – where he appears on stage alongside his civil partner Jon Tsouras.
Partridge said: “We are civil partners and that’s a tough one. When people ask that, I say: ‘I am already married.” That’s why we got civil partnered. The question undermines what we’ve already done.
“We consider ourselves to be married: we had a beautiful day, we had a ceremony in front of our friends and our family. We’re not particularly religious people so we wouldn’t want to get married in church or in the eyes of the Lord but, as far as we’re concerned, we are married.”
Asked if he supported the campaign to allow same-sex couples to marry, Partridge replied: “Should you be allowed to get married in the way you want, where you want and, if you have religion in your life, with that in the ceremony? Of course you should. Should we have equality? Of course we should. Am I happy with what I’ve got? I absolutely am.”
Partridge, who quit Eastenders last year having played the gay character of Christian Clarke since 2008 also said he had never received any criticism from the public regarding the sexuality of Christian.
However, he dismissed a possible return to the soap by saying: “I’m out of it forever. I didn’t get killed or anything. We both left to lead a much better life out of the Square.”
Partridge also joked that he did not find former on-screen partner Marc Elliot (Syed Masood) attractive in real life.
“He’s hot on the screen but he’s not so hot in real life. The camera loves him but he’s my brother. Or my sister, I should say,” he joked.
“I couldn’t think of him like that. It turns my stomach a bit. But he’s a sweetheart.”
