They started dating in the summer of 2020 when a group text turned into Zoom sessions.
Patrick Duffy and Linda Purl have a love story for the (internet) ages. It's only been two years, but life sure zooms by fast when you're having this much fun.
Duffy and Purl spoke with ET's Matt Cohen while on the set of The Bold and the Beautiful, where the real-life couple will make an appearance as an on-screen couple on this season of the hit CBS soap opera. For Duffy, it's a return to old stomping grounds. For the first time in 11 years, Duffy will reprise his role as patriarch of the Logan family, Stephen, a role he played from 2006 to 2011.
Duffy, 73, and Purl, 67, opened up to ET about their romance, which started in a group text message before the conversation migrated over to Zoom, the videotelephony software program they had never heard of, much less used. But, like the rest of the world, they were adapting while in the thick of a global pandemic, so they gave Zoom a shot. And it worked.
"We had never heard of Zoom," quips Purl, known for her roles on Happy Days and, most recently, The Office. She's been married four times, including to her first husband, Desi Arnaz Jr., in the early 1980s. Her most recent marriage ended in 2011.
Duffy and Purl spent hours talking over Zoom, and the conversation flowed so seamlessly from group text to Zoom that when the world started opening up again and an opportunity arose for both of them to take part in an overseas play, they jumped at the offer to take part in it together. And off they went, on a seven-month tour that served as the relationship's make-or-break moment.
"There we were, in Europe, we lived together, went to the theater together, came home together," says Duffy, who was married to ballet dancer Carlyn Rosser until her death in 2017. "And people say, 'Oh my god, that must've been so dangerous!' We thought it was great."
Clearly, the relationship didn't just survive. It thrived.
"It was great, and we had to do a film together," Purl chimes in. "We had two weeks in isolation in Canada 'cause it was quarantine at the time, and we thought, this could be bad, but it wasn't! We just laughed our way through it."
The relationship, which started in the summer of 2020, has blossomed ever since, so much so that they're now also business partners, with a business dubbed Duffy's Dough, a baking product that helps foodies make sourdough bread at home with ease.
"So, we are never apart," Duffy exclaims. "But thank God on Bold and the Beautiful they gave us separate dressing rooms."
The Dallas and Step by Step star jokes, but Purl calls it all a dream scenario, and Duffy can't help but agree. And if you ask the couple what's the most challenging or difficult part about working together, Purl says she hasn't found one.
"We haven't found the difficult yet. I haven't found it. Have you?" she asks Duffy.
His response? "No."
Happy days, indeed.
The Bold and the Beautiful airs on the CBS Television Network.
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