Call the Midwife’s Helen George and Jack Ashton announce split after seven years

George has played nurse Trixie Franklin in the BBC show since 2012 and Ashton joined as vicar Tom Hereward in 2014

Actor Helen George has announced her split from partner Jack Ashton, who she met while starring with him on BBC One’s series Call The Midwife.

The pair, who were together for seven years and have two young daughters, reportedly started dating after filming the show’s 2016 Christmas special together.

In a statement, George said: “Some months ago, we separated.”

Jack Ashton and Helen George pictured in 2017 (PA)

“Our two beautiful girls remain the focus and I respectfully ask for privacy for this next chapter.”

George, 38, has played glamorous nurse Trixie Franklin since 2012 and Ashton, 36, joined as vicar Tom Hereward in 2014. Ashton’s character proposed to Trixie but she then ended the relationship during the fourth series.

The reverend started a new relationship with Nurse Barbara Gilbert, played by Charlotte Ritchie. Ashton left the show in 2018, when Nurse Gilbert died of sepsis and his character moved out of London to start a new life.

Call the Midwife follows a group of nurse midwives working in the East End of London in the late Fifties and Sixties as they wrestle with their own personal lives and support the community of women and children around them. The show is based on the best-selling memoirs of the late Jennifer Worth, describing her work as a district nurse and midwife in London.

Helen George and Jack Ashton and their children Wren Ivy and Lark, pictured in December 2022 (PA)

George and Ashton’s first daughter Wren was born in 2017, followed by Lark in 2021.

Jack Ashton and Helen George pictured in 2019 (PA)

George, who finished sixth place on Strictly Come Dancing in 2015, still plays Trixie in Call the Midwife and will be starring as governess Anna in a West End production of The King and I next year. Meanwhile, Jack appears as Lenny Sampson, a reformed ex-convict, in the Rochdale-based BBC school drama Waterloo Road.