Lisa & Michael Together At Last!

Shorty’s new couple were destined to find love

- Karyn Henger

It’s not every day that you find yourself having Christmas lunch with six ‘fake’ husbands. But that’s the situation Kiwi actress Lisa Chappell, 52, found herself in when she attended an actors’ get-together in Auckland two years ago.

“They were from various jobs that I’d had over the years,” the McLeod’s Daughters star explains. So when Shortland Street actor Michael Galvin, 54, joined their table, Lisa couldn’t resist mischievously pointing out he was the odd one out.

She recalls, “I said, ‘You’re the only man here who hasn’t been my fake husband.’ It was just a flippant comment, but here we are!”

Lisa joined Shorty in January as businesswoman Michelle Beaufort, and it didn’t take long for romance to blossom between her character and Michael’s, clinic director Dr Chris Warner. Michael jokes that Chris’ “fate was sealed” the day Lisa made that throwaway comment at lunch.

In the storyline, Michelle is a blast from the past for Chris, and in their real lives, Lisa and Michael have known each other for a long time.

“But we’ve never actually worked together before,” Lisa says. “While Michael has been working his toosh off for 26 years and raising a child, I’ve been back and forwards to Australia and living the life of a gypsy.”