Rob Mallard ‘splits’ from Coronation Street co-star boyfriend after four years

While Daniel Osbourne is currently going through hell in Coronation Street, the actor behind the character, Rob Mallard, is also experiencing a turbulent period in his real life.

The dreaded ‘Instagram cleanse’ is truly the end of the line for a relationship, isn’t it? We’ve all been there: manually scrolling through our grids, usually clutching a family-sized block of Dairy Milk or a glass of wine, removing any and all traces of an ex.

Rob and his – now ex – boyfriend, Matthew Martin, have done just that after calling time on their four-year relationship, with only one picture remaining on Matthew’s grid, that also includes a number of family members. The period at the end of the sentence came when they also unfollowed each other.

The two had previously hard-launched their relationship at the 2023 Soap Awards, shortly after going Instagram official.

While Rob is entrenched in Weatherfield as a member of the Barlow family, a clan that carries an enormous legacy on the cobbles, Matthew had a more modest role, appearing previously as the policeman who arrested Cassie Plummer (Claire Sweeney), whose campaign of drugging Ken Barlow (William Roache) had finally been exposed.

‘Ey mam! I’m on the telly box! Quite a surreal time being pulled in SUPER last minute to step in as a Policeman to arrest Cassie Plummer. All thanks to @mossy737 for giving me the opportunity to work on the iconic show that is @coronationstreet and of course my lad @rob.mallard for being the biggest support and showing me the ropes’ he captioned an image after his appearance.

Rob has also previously been in a relationship with former co-star, Daniel Brocklebank, who formerly played Billy Mayhew in the soap for a few months in 2017.

After winning Best Newcomer at that years soap awards, Rob declared Dan ‘the best thing I’ve taken home this year’, though their romance was short-lived.

A source revealed to the Sun following the split: ‘It was a lot of pressure for both of them to be working on the same show and going out in the end something had to give. 

‘They decided to part ways a couple of weeks ago but they’re still great friends and hope to remain that way.’

Daniel Osbourne’s Coronation Street turmoil

As Rob navigates his real-life break up, his ‘Street character, Daniel, is also going through a tumultuous time, after being in a relationship with paedophile Megan Walsh (Beth Nixon), who’d been grooming and abusing Will Driscoll (Lucas Hodgson-Wale) and using her relationship with Daniel as a cover.

While telling his family he’d gone on holiday, Daniel actually locked himself in his flat: ‘I think he’s just gone straight to anger as a coping mechanism,’ Rob explained.

‘He’s just angry with everyone and everything. It’s easier to be angry and it feels more powerful to be angry than it is to be sad.’

‘He seems to end up with slime on him every time something happens to someone else nearby, Daniel always seems to end up tarred by it as well.

Because of what happened with Summer Spellman (Harriet Bibby) and then Max Turner (Paddy Bever), he’s put a lot of work into making sure that he keeps some sort of distance between himself and the students and Megan was basically like a back door that he didn’t realise was there and dragged him into everything.’

As his behaviour continued to get worse and with the realisation that his new confidant, Jodie Ramsey (Olivia Frances-Brown), had been secretly trolling him with an anonymous social media account, Daniel got drunk and left young son Bertie (Henry Duggan) to try and make his own dinner, resulting in a microwave fire.

Bertie fled into the arms of Adam Barlow (Sam Robertson), leading to an almighty row between Daniel, Adam and Ken, with Ken ending up on the receiving end of an almighty smack from his son.

‘It’s like everything is spiralling.
They all call him out. They corner him in the Barlows and I think he just feels trapped, he goes to lash out at Adam and he catches Ken,’ Rob explained.

‘It’s always Ken that he seems to hurt. When Daniel’s trapped he comes out fighting and that resentment he feels from his earlier life seems to find its way back towards Ken.

‘He still feels he was abandoned by Ken when he was a kid. So even though they’re in a much better place now, there’s still that resentment simmering away in the background.

‘When I play scenes with Bill, whenever Ken’s trying to give Daniel advice on a life problem, I always play it like a 14 year old, because that’s exactly where they would be in that relationship, that’s where he was left. So Daniel can’t help but turn into a petulant teenager around Ken.’

Daniel’s troubles didn’t end there, when social services arrived at his door. How does he feel when they come knocking?

‘100% a wake up call,’ Rob said. ‘He’s completely beside himself, he thinks that he’s going to have his kid taken off him and again it’s all to do with keeping a promise that he made to Sinead Tinker (Katie McGlynn).’

Is this the first step toward an upward trajectory for Daniel? Or will he continue to descend into darkness?

‘Once someone gets a bit of mud on them, you might as well get properly dirty.

‘I think that in terms of Daniel’s character, if he’s going to go off the rails, he should go off them properly, possibly even lose custody of Bertie temporarily, really teach him a lesson.’