‘Virgin River’ Cast’s Dating Histories Through the Years

A far cry from their characters! Virgin River may center around the dramatic love lives of those living in a small town, but the cast themselves have managed to find more stable relationships in real life. 

The Netflix drama, which debuted in 2019, centers around Melinda “Mel” Monroe (Alexandra Breckenridge), a widow who answers an ad to work as a midwife and nurse practitioner in the remote California town of Virgin River. While she initially believes she’s found the perfect place to start over and heal from her past, she quickly realizes the town isn’t as “quiet” as she expected.

Throughout the show’s four-season run, no citizen of the small, sleepy town has been able to elude their own personal romantic drama. That’s especially true for Mel, who finds herself falling in love with Jack (Martin Henderson), a veteran who has his own traumatic past. The timing never seems quite right for the pair and just as they finally find a way to be together, something always ends up tearing them apart.

Off screen, however, Breckenridge has been a lot luckier in love. The This Is Us alum met her husband, Casey Hooper, at a Grammys afterparty in 2012 and the two hit it off right away. The couple then made their romance public in June 2012 at the red carpet premiere of the comedy film Ted and got engaged two years later. In 2016, they welcomed their son, Jack. Their second child, daughter Billie, was born in 2017.

In 2019, the lovebirds made the decision to move to a rural town in Georgia — following in character Mel’s own footsteps — to raise their family in a place that didn’t have the hustle and bustle of a big city. While Breckenridge is busy shooting in Canada for the majority of the year, she credits her hubby for keeping things together at home while she’s gone.

“Luckily, I have an extremely supportive husband who’s an incredible father and has always been super hands-on with the kids,” she told Connecticut Magazine in July 2022. “I think I probably wouldn’t have been able to do it without him.”

Breckenridge isn’t the only Virgin River cast member to have their own off-screen fairy tale. Colin Lawrence, who plays John “Preacher” Middleton — a close friend of Jack’s — has been going strong with wife Lucia Walters since they tied the knot in September 1999. 

Scroll down for everything there is to know about the Virgin River cast’s dating histories!