Hollyoaks' Rachel Shenton and Chris Overton married in secret after Oscars win

Hollyoaks co-stars Rachel Shenton and Chris Overton have married, seven months after the couple won an Academy Award for their short film, The Silent Child.

Shenton told The Sun: “We got married not that long ago in amongst all the madness! It was a very private event, we wanted to keep it private, but I am so happy though. It has been a very good year, I don’t know what we are going to do next year!"

The couple first met on the set of Hollyoaks in 2010, when Shenton played Mitzeee Minniver on the Channel 4 drama and Overton played Liam McAllister.

Back in March, the pair won the Academy Award for Best Short Film, in the live-action category, for The Silent Child, which Overton directed and Shenton wrote and starred in. The film tells the story of Libby (Maisie Sly), a profoundly deaf four-year-old girl, who lives isolated until a social worker (Shenton) teaches her how to communicate through sign language.

Talking about how their lives have changed since winning, Shenton said: “I mean Chris and I are a bit boring and normal so I don’t think it has changed that much day to day really, but it has certainly changed us creatively in terms of what we want to do and the meetings we’ve found ourselves in and doors that have been opened. Both sides of the pond we’ve had great meetings and we are just very excited for the next projects and things.”

Shenton included sign language into her acceptance speech. She said: "I made a promise to our six-year-old lead actress that I'd sign this speech. Our movie is about a deaf child being born into a world of silence. It's not exaggerated or sensationalised for the movie."

“This is happening. Millions of children all over the world live in silence and face communication barriers. And particularly access to education. So, deafness is a silent disability. You can’t see it and it’s not life-threatening. So I want to say the biggest of thank yous to the Academy for allowing us to put this in front of a mainstream audience.”

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