"I am spending Christmas in love this year."
Daniel Lissing is in love!
The 37-year-old former When Calls the Heart star sat down with ET's Deidre Behar and revealed that -- much like in his new Hallmark Channel movie, Christmas In Love -- he'll be spending the holidays with someone special.
"It's embarrassing for me to say," he confessed of publicly discussing his love life, before revealing, "I am spending Christmas in love this year."
Despite "always bursting with love and joy," Lissing admitted that "it's always nice" to spend Christmastime with someone you love, something he said he's likely to do with his girlfriend.
As for the lucky lady, who the Australian actor says he met traveling, Lissing was pretty tight-lipped. He did share that she's not an actress, is adventurous like him and hails from overseas.
While their relationship is still "in the beginning stages," Lissing revealed that they plan to make their coupledom social media official "at some point soon."
"We talked about it, the whole social media thing, and where that fits into, where's the personal life and career life and all that," he shared. "She's completely cool with it. I'm the one that's a little like, 'I'm not sure!'"
All in all, Lissing exclaimed, "Life is good!"
Life must imitate art because Lissing is falling in love on the small screen too, with his new movie, Christmas in Love, which premieres Sunday, Nov. 11 on the Hallmark Channel.
"I read the script and I had to do it because it's one of those stories where the arc of the character is just so interesting," Lissing said of his role as a CEO who visits a small town and falls in love. "It's two worlds colliding. It's two sets of ideologies colliding and then coming together, which I think is relevant, especially this time of year when we need hope and love and a little bit of togetherness. This was a no-brainer for me."
Another thing that drew Lissing to Christmas in Love was his co-star, Brooke D'Orsay, for whom the star had nothing but praise and admiration.
"She's just such a great comedic actor and, as I found out, such a giving actor on set," Lissing said. "So we had a great dynamic there."
Lissing's role in Christmas in Love comes just months after his departure from When Calls the Heart, where he served as the show's romantic lead opposite series star Erin Krakow for five straight seasons.
"[Our] chemistry [after] working together for five years was really there from the start, as actors and as friends. She's so dear to my heart," said Lissing, who revealed that he and Krakow are still close friends and talk almost daily.
As it turns out, acting opposite a a different leading lady for Christmas in Love didn't prove to be much of a challenge because, as Lissing explained, he had a similar instant friendship with O'rsay that he had with Krakow.
"I was really lucky working with Brooke for Christmas in Love because we have a really similar sense of humor and we got on set ... we approached the scenes in completely different ways. [So] I actually learned from her, because she has this great comedy sensibility and she thinks really outside the box," he recalled. "[It was really different than the way I usually think when I approach a role, and so we clashed in the best kind of way, which created this bubbly chemistry."
While he's loving life and looking forward to the projects he's got in the works, Lissing admitted that he still has a lot of warm feelings and fond memories about his time on When Calls the Heart after quitting the show in April, leading to the shocking death of his celebrated character during the season five finale.
"It's something that I'll always be proud of and always hold close to my heart," Lissing said of the series. "I miss it, of course I do. This is my family. I miss the work on set with some of my favorite people in the world…it's great to be working and it's great to be on set. That's what I live for."
As for the show's upcoming sixth season, which is set to debut in 2019, Lissing encouraged Hearties to keep watching, and said that he's going to be watching right along with them.
"This show is way bigger than one character. This network and this program will continue to bring quality programming and great stories and the kind of Hallmark-iness that everyone has come to love," he insisted. "Anyone out there that's saying, 'Oh, I'm not gonna watch it if this character isn't on there,' I say just give it a shot. I believe that anyone that's saying anything like that will watch one episode and be right back [on board]."
For more from Lissing on his time on When Calls the Heart and his enduring friendship with his former co-stars, check out the video below.
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