Just days after Mr Tumble actor Justin Fletcher confirmed his blossoming romance with co-star Samantha Dorrance, her father has broken his silence on the pair’s 21-year age gap.
The CBeebies icon, 55, revealed he’s ‘madly in love’ with his 34-year-old co-star Samantha after the couple were spotted together at the weekend.
Now their relationship has been given the thumbs up by Samantha’s father, Stuart Dorrance, who said the lovebirds are ‘blissfully happy’.
Speaking from his family home in Willenhall, West Midlands, Mr Dorrance – who, at 64, is just nine years older than Justin – told the Daily Mail: ‘They’re very happy. We’re happy. And that’s all that matters really.’
The couple were photographed for the first time as they visited four-star hotel The Mount Country Manor Hotel & Golf in Wolverhampton.
Justin, who has been playing Mr Tumble since 2003, wore a green gilet with sunglasses, while Samantha, who plays Tumble’s best friend Tootsie on the children’s show, was seen in a dress and sweater.
Showing their closeness, the pair wore matching New York Yankees baseball caps, while wheeling their overnight bags into the hotel, during a break from the Justin Live: Justin Time to Rock tour, in which they both star.
Last week a source close to the pair told the Daily Mail how their romance has ‘blossomed’ over the past year, with Samantha moving into Justin’s £2.5million six-bedroom farmhouse in Henley-on-Thames, Oxfordshire.
The insider gushed: ‘Although there is an age gap, it isn’t an issue between them. For Justin, Samantha is “the one”.
Justin Fletcher and girlfriend Samantha Dorrance were spotted heading to a hotel together in matching New York Yankees baseball caps
When Samantha was just 23, she landed the role of Tootsie, Mr Tumble’s best friend, and she is currently co-writing songs for Justin’s new tour. (Pictured on stage during the tour)
‘The farm is their sanctuary and where they both feel happiest. Friends know about the relationship, as well as their castmates on the tour.’
Samantha’s father, who is an author and songwriter, spoke to the Daily Mail from the £210,000 three-bed family home where she grew up and was home-schooled by her parents.
Mr Dorrance and his wife Karen also have a 28-year-old son called Kurt. After finishing home schooling, Samantha trained at the Birmingham School of Acting and holds a BTEC in Popular Music from Walsall College.
She won Disney Channel’s You’re The Star talent competition in 2007 and went on to host her own talent show on the channel called My School Musical. Samantha then joined Disney’s Movie Surfers team, giving viewers a peek behind the scenes on film sets around the world.
Aged just 19, she landed her first West End lead role as Laura in Dreamboats and Petticoats, enjoying a two-year run at The Playhouse and Wyndham’s Theatre.
The actress has also toured as Gertrude McFuzz in Seussical the Musical, played Skye in the stage version of Paw Patrol and made guest appearances in shows such as BBC’s Doctors.
And in 2015, when she was 23, she landed the role of silly best friend Tootsie in The Tale of Mr Tumble.
Following in her father’s footsteps for songwriting, Samantha founded her children’s band Sammy & The Sparks – a pop band for children designed to boost their wellbeing through music – and, in 2023, she toured her self-written stage show around Britain.
She has also co-written two songs for CBeebies House Party Live, which is currently touring nationally, and is now co-writing songs for Justin Fletcher’s new tour, Justin Time To Rock.
The pair have worked together on several occasions. After performing with Justin in 2024 as Cinderella, Samantha posted a photo of him and wrote: ‘I couldn’t ask for a better Buttons’
The couple live together in Justin’s £2.5million farmhouse in Oxfordshire. Samantha recently shared on Instagram that they hatched their own chickens there
Justin, who stars on CBeebies’ longest-running programme, Something Special, has earned Baftas and an MBE for his work. But he says his biggest dream is to have a family one day
When Samantha performed on stage with Justin in 2024, playing Cinders in Cinderella, she shared a snap of her casting photograph alongside him and wrote: ‘I couldn’t ask for a better Buttons.’
But since they began dating, Samantha has refrained from tagging Justin in social media posts.
She frequently shares photos from his house where she lives and refers to him vaguely as simply her ‘partner’.
In March, for example, she shared a slideshow of chicks and eggs, writing: ‘Last year, me and my partner hatched our own chickens. I was making breakfast one morning and noticed all the eggs we had been buying from our local honesty box were fertilised. My partner just so happened to have an old incubator, so we dug it out.’
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Something Special, which stars Mr Tumble, is the longest-running programme on the BBC’s Children’s channel and has earned Justin Baftas and an MBE.
He is estimated to have amassed a net worth of more than £1.5million from the enormous popularity of the character.
Sales of his Something Special DVDs alone are understood to have topped 100,000, bringing in an estimated £1million for the star, while an accompanying magazine is said to bring in another £180,000 a month.
Despite his career success, Justin has always admitted that the one thing he still dreams of is having his own family.
He has famously been single for years and previously joked in interviews about receiving marriage proposals from smitten mums.
And in a rare insight into his life offscreen, in 2012, he said: ‘I’m not married, live alone and have been single for a while now, because I’ve been a workaholic filming Something Special, Justin’s House and Gigglebiz.
‘But I do want to free up some time for myself and my family. I would love to have children, so need to find someone who likes kids. A couple of kids would be lovely.’
As the pair continue building their life together and insiders gush that Samantha is ‘the one’ for Justin, only time will tell if the CBeebies star’s dreams of settling down and having a family can survive the couple’s 21-year age gap.
