Moment we just clicked

The unlikely pairing of a Soap star & Essex boy

- SUE LEE

WHEN former Coronation Street actor Katie McGlynn agreed to a job on a cruise ship she thought it would be a chance to travel and spend time with a friend. Instead, it became her very own love boat.

Just minutes after arriving on the ship she saw reality star Ricky Rayment and, while it wasn't exactly love at first sight, romance soon began to blossom.

"I'd never really been interested in cruising but I decided to travel with a friend and incorporate it into a bit of a break as well it was a last minute decision to go," recalls Katie, who played Sinead Tinker in the ITV soap for seven years.

"When I arrived on the ship I'd been travelling for 12 hours, was shattered and pretty sweaty. And then Ricky rocked up looking rather handsome!"

Ricky, 33, who spent four years on our screens in The Only Way Is Essex, was also booked to work on the ship and it seems he didn't notice any beads of sweat. "I saw Katie on board and thought, "Wow"," he says.

Katie's first thoughts weren't all quite so generous however...

"I thought he was very good-looking but, to be honest, I did judge him a bit prematurely, she says. "I recognised his face and just assumed he wasn't going to be my type of person-you know, Jack the lad from Essex - and I took it for granted we wouldn't get on.

"I'm happy to say I got that one wrong! I decided I probably wasn't going to get on with him, wouldn't talk to him, and anyway, I was there with a friend and wasn't interested in boys. So off I went to have a shower..."