Gavin & Stacey’s Joanna Page and hubby James Thornton almost divorced in lockdown as they stopped having sex

GAVIN & Stacey star Joanna Page says she nearly divorced in lockdown because she and her hubby stopped having sex.

The real-life drama echoes the sitcom’s plot in which Mat Horne and Jo’s Gavin and Stacey Shipman find their marriage in turmoil from a nookie drought.

Jo — a mum-of-three like her character — says her youngsters, aged four to seven, killed any chance of intimacy with actor hubby James Thornton, 45.

She told The Sun: “We spent the whole of the first lockdown arguing and threatening to divorce each other.

“Then we went through a month of literally not saying a single word to each other.

“We came out of that a bit numb and deadened and desperate for anything we could get because we just argued so much.

“‘Let’s get some sex in before we have to pick the kids up from school’ — that’s how desperate we’d got.”

Jo, 43, and James, who played John Barton in Emmerdale, have been married for 17 years and are parents to Eva, seven, Kit, five, and Noah, four.

She added: “I’m sure all parents found it really difficult during lockdown.

“You’re with the children so much, and then at night-time they all just wanted to sleep in bed with us.

“So you were going through a 24-hour cycle having no break from them at all.

“At night-time one wanted to lie on that side holding that boob, the other one wanted to lie on this side holding this boob and then my third little one just wanted to lie down the whole of my body. So I was there going, ‘Oh my God, please, I just want a bit of space’.

“When we managed to get them back to school that was a godsend because at least me and my husband could talk to each other and reunite and then I could fancy him.”

Gavin & Stacey’s 2019 special, repeated by the BBC this Christmas Eve, earned rave reviews and a new following of fans.

They have been desperate to discover whether Smithy, played by James Corden, said ‘Yes’ after old flame Nessa (Ruth Jones) popped the question in Barry, South Wales.

Despite the clamour for more new episodes, Jo believes the show might be best left on last year’s cliffhanger.

She admitted: “I can see that being really good because I don’t know how you could ever end it — and would you ever be satisfied at the end? I don’t know.”

Jo is fronting a campaign by Census 2021 to recognise community heroes who went above and beyond during the Covid pandemic.

Entrants can choose nominees up until New Year’s Eve and 22 people will be awarded with a purple plaque recognising their dedication.

She said: “We just need a bit of love and warmth and positivity and happiness.

"This year has been so challenging anyway, and for us now to have been hit with all this at Christmas time, it’s hard to keep the positivity there and keep carrying on.

“It’s lovely that we can celebrate the people that have gone above and beyond.

“I’m talking about normal people not celebrities or sports — the delivery drivers, the teachers, the local war heroes who are volunteering at the community centre.”

Nominate your Census Community Heroes by ­visiting .

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