New ITV dating show My Mum, Your Dad proved to be a huge hit with TV viewers, who quickly became invested in the romances formed on the show.

The unique programme, dubbed 'middle-aged Love Island', saw single parents head to a retreat in order to try and find love – with their children secretly watching the whole thing from a nearby room.

One contestant who captured the hearts of TV viewers was widower Roger Hawes, 58, who had been encouraged to appear on the dating show by his children after the heartbreaking death of their mum Joanna from cancer 18 months ago.

Roger, a postman from Derbyshire, appeared on the ITV show alongside his daughter Jess, 28, and the pair are now enjoying their newfound reality TV fame.

However, Roger is also dad to daughter Alex and son Ben, who didn't appear on the TV show. The proud dad-of-three looks to share a very close bond with his children, who regularly feature on his Instagram profile in photos from fun days out and sunny holidays.

Siblings Alex, Ben, 22, and Jess all look to be very close too, and the family spends a lot of time together.

Roger also seems to have a close relationship with his son-in-law Ryan Brown, who is married to daughter Jess. Ryan regularly joins the Hawes on family get aways and features heavily on Roger's Instagram account, alongside Alex's partner Max.

Jess wed partner Ryan back in 2019 in a stunning ceremony surrounded by their nearest and dearest. The happy couple live together with their beloved pet dog, Bruno.

Jess, who is a network rail planner, along with Alex and Ben nominated their father for My Mum, Your Dad after deciding they were happy for him to begin dating.

Speaking ahead of the show, Jess told ITV: "It was a joint thing with my brother and sister and it was our way of basically telling him that we were happy for him to start dating, if that was something he wanted to do.

"It was a cop out on our part really, as it meant we didn’t need to sit down and actually say it. It was a sneaky way of saying, ‘Oh look at this, do you want to look into this?’ Never actually expected anything to come of it."

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