Soap Opera Star Marries Husband for Second Time

Coronation Street alum Bhavna Limbachia remarried her husband seven years after exchanging vows. The actress is best known as Rana Habeeb on the ITV soap opera. In February, she and her husband, Darren Kuppan, traveled to Mauritius for a traditional Tamil blessing, reported the Daily Mail.

In an Instagram post on Monday, Limbachia, 39, shared photos from the ceremony with her 104,000 followers. The actress posted photos and a video of herself in an Indian sari, praising a local Mauritian salon for transforming her into a Tamil bride. A small ceremony attended by her Coronation Street castmates saw the actress exchange vows with Kuppan in July 2018. 

Despite her marriage to Zeedan Nazir, Limbachia’s soap character at the time had a secret lesbian affair with Kate Connor, played by Faye Brookes. Ultimately, Zeedan discovered the two in a romantic encounter and told Rana’s conservative family, who condemned their relationship. 

When Limbachia was approached with the storyline twenty months ago, she told Daily Mail she was surprised as her character had been deemed a “man-eater.” Moreover, she confessed to taking inspiration from a boy she knew who committed suicide after struggling for acceptance of his sexuality.

Limbachia, who hails from an Indian background, admitted that she wasn’t sure how her mother would react to her taking on the role. “I sat her down and told her I was kissing a girl on screen. She didn’t quite understand, so I told her in Gujarati and she said if you’re going to help people, then you’ve got my full support.”

Eventually, Rana was killed in 2019 after being trapped under rubble following the collapse of the Underworld factory. In Limbachia’s words, Rana’s death had been a “fitting end,” and she would not have wanted her character to be able to ‘jump in a cab and leave,’ she said at the time.

On This Morning, just a short time after she left, Limbachia spoke with Holly Willoughby and Phillip Schofield about the process she went through to shoot her scenes. “They were quite insane and difficult. I filmed under rubble for about a week,” she explained.

In addition, the actress discussed the backlash the soap received for killing off a lesbian character. She added, ‘My decision to be killed off was never meant to offend the community. It was purely about two people being in love.’