Slow Horses’ Christopher Chung: Married to Olivier-Nominated Star While His Character is Honey-Trapped

He is best known for playing the arrogant, wise-cracking and unlucky-in-love tech whiz, Roddy Ho.

But Christopher Chung’s off-screen love life couldn’t be further removed from his  Slow Horses character.

The fifth series of the hit Apple TV show – which is currently airing – has centred around Roddy, after the obnoxious computer nerd nabbed a glamorous new girlfriend, Tara, played by Hiba Bennani.

The team are immediately suspicious, owing to Roddy’s universal unpopularity and his track record, including his online romance with a woman named Kim, who turned out to be an AI chatbot.

As Gary Oldman’s brutally honest Jackson Lamb tells him: ‘Nothing raises my Spidey-Senses as much as hearing a woman is happy to spend time with you.’

Tara is soon revealed to have connections to some very dangerous and violent criminals, with her duping of Roddy setting into motion a series of shocking events, that drive the plot of series five.

But in a case of life doing the opposite of imitating art, actor Chris, 37, has found love with stunning West End star, Frances Mayli McCann.

The couple have been together for almost a decade and married for five, after falling for each other while both starring in Here Lies Love, an Imelda Narcos-inspired musical at London’s Royal National Theatre in 2014.

Scottish actress Frances has been a West End sensation for 15 years, treading the boards in the likes of Evita, Little Shop of Horrors, Peter Pan and Death Note: The Musical.

She made her West End debut in a 2011 production of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert, going on to play iconic roles such as Eponine in Les Miserables, Bonnie Parker in Bonnie & Clyde and most recently as Daisy Buchanan in The Great Gatsby.

She’s made a name for herself on the stage, bagging an Olivier Award nomination in 2017 for Best Supporting Actress for Our Ladies of Perpetual Succour and a nod for Best Performer in a Musical at the 2023 WhatsOnStage Awards for Bonnie & Clyde.

And she’s starred opposite the likes of Grammy nominee Jeremy Jordan, High School Musical star Corbin Bleu and Strictly Come Dancing’s Amber Davies.

Like her husband, Frances has also appeared on the small screen, with reoccurring roles in TV shows such as ITV crime drama Shetland, CBBC sci-fi series Silverpoint and recent Netflix thriller Dept. Q.

While she has played Chloe Qi-Lewis on BBC’s Scottish soap opera River City for the past three years.

Chris popped the question to Frances in October 2016 during a trip to his hometown in Melbourne.

The pair went on to tie the knot in the same city in January 2020 with a traditional Chinese ceremony, before saying ‘I do’ for the second time in September 2021 at The Bothy in Glasgow.

Looking incredibly in a one-shouldered bridal gown with a floor-length veil, Frances shared a slew of loved-up snaps with Chris to Instagram, with a reference to the roles they played in separate productions of Heathers: The Musical.

She captioned the shots: ‘23.09.2021 @chrispchung Kurt and Mac made it in the end.’

The couple have often shared glimpses of their life on social media, including tropical holidays together and visits to Chris’ family in Australia.

The pair also boast several famous friends, being good pals with singer Josh Groban and his girlfriend Natalie McQueen, and Marvel star Simu Liu. 

While they also have an adorable Japanese Shiba Inu pup called Keiko, who has her own Instagram account. 

Chris has frequently gushed over how Frances changed his life, crediting her for persuading him to keep pursuing an acting career when he was considering throwing in the towel.

Speaking to The Guardian last month, he confessed that he became disillusioned with only being offered roles of Asian stereotypes.

He said that it was only Frances’ encouragement that made him stand his ground, saying: ‘She told me to keep going’, with him going on to nab the Slow Horses role and a BAFTA nod this year – making him the third east Asian male actor ever to be nominated.

He added to the Radio Times: ‘But then I met my wife on a job at the National Theatre. If it weren’t for her, I would have definitely moved back to Australia. 

‘She has always lifted me up when I’ve been in those moments where I don’t think I can do it any more’.

And in a recent interview with The Times, Christopher revealed that Frances had caught him talking in his sleep, as Roddy.

The star, who hails from Melbourne with an Irish mother and a Chinese-Malaysian father said: ‘My wife told me I was saying something about Slough House and Jackson Lamb in my Roddy accent. I said the next time I do it she has to get it on tape.’

While he sweetly revealed that Frances often finds it hard watching her husband being shot at or attacked on the show.

Christopher said: ‘We watch and she’ll say, “Oh my God, what’s going to happen to you? even though she knows what happens in the books.’

But speaking about whether his Slow Horses counterpart will ever get his own happy ending, he told Town & Country: ‘There’s someone out there for everybody [laughs]. There has to be. 

‘But I think his standards are just so incredibly high of what he thinks he deserves, that it might be a really hard push for him to find someone that’s genuinely interested in him, but never say never.