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Eric Winter and His Famous Wife are Complete ‘Opposites’ — She Guest Starred on This Episode of The Rookie
Tuesday, May 2nd, 2023
We’ll ship Tim Bradford and Lucy Chen on The Rookie until the end of time. But in the actor’s personal life, who is Eric Winter’s wife? Keep reading to learn who the former Days of Our Lives actor is married to in real life.
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The Rookie is ABC’s police procedural drama following John Nolan, a newly divorced man in his 40s who, after inadvertently helping the police stop a bank robbery, moves from Pennsylvania to Los Angeles, California, to pursue a career as a police officer at the Los Angeles Police Department. Created by Alexi Hawley, the series is based on the true story of William Norcross, a real officer with the LAPD who moved to Los Angeles in 2015 and joined the department in his mid-40s.
As one of the original officers on The Rookie, Winter portrays Tim Bradford, a training officer at the Los Angeles Police Department who served as a Marine squad leader in Iraq and Afghanistan before joining the LAPD. In an interview with HollywoodLife in 2020, Winter, who also played Rex Brady on the soap opera Days of Our Lives, talked about his character’s on-screen relationship with fellow police officer Lucy Chen (Melissa O’Neil) after the Season 2 finale.
“They picked this duo and turned them into Chenford and Tucy. It’s amazing, because going into the show, I don’t think anybody predicted that or thought that was even in the future. I think Alexi [Hawley] had a lot of things lined up structurally without these characters’ relationships, but as seasons go on and characters grow and the actors bring what they do, everybody evolves,” he explained to the platform. Fans have a strong voice and fans really took to this tough love of Bradford just all over this girl and her taking it, pushing back, and delivering. It turned into this super powerful platonic love that everyone wants to see it be more than that.”
But what about Eric Winter’s relationship in real life? Keep scrolling to learn all about his famous wife, how the couple met and if they have any children together.
Who is Eric Winter’s wife?
Who is Eric Winter’s wife? Eric Winter is married to his wife of 15 years, Roselyn Sánchez, a Puerto Rican singer, songwriter and actress. Sánchez is best known for her roles in Without a Trace, Devious Maids and her current role as Elena Roarke on the FOX series, Fantasy Island. She has also appeared in film projects including Rush Hour 2, Boat Trip, The Game Plan, Act of Valor and more.
The pair began dating after meeting at a party in L.A. in 2005. Winter was previously married to actress Allison Ford from 2001 to 2005, while Sánchez was formerly married to Gary Stretch from 1998 to 2001. A few months after Winter divorced Ford, he and Sánchez started dating in 2005, and Winter proposed two years later in 2007. He popped the question during a kayaking trip through a bioluminescent bay (how romantic!). Roselyn said yes and the couple tied the knot in 2008 at the San Cristobal fort in Old San Juan, Puerto Rico, which is Roselyn’s hometown.
Four years after their wedding, they welcomed their first daughter, Sebella Rose Winter (age 11) in 2012. They had their second child, Dylan Gabriel Winter, in 2017, after a long and difficult process with in vitro fertilization. “We tried [to conceive naturally] for at least three years [before Sebi] and it was a shock,” Sanchez told People in September 2017. “I have four siblings … my mom is very fertile. I knew that I had endometriosis, but with me, it wasn’t an indication that I was going to have a problem with conceiving because my tubes were clean and my ovaries were clean. It was devastating.”
Aside from raising a family together, the couple are also business partners and have collaborated together in TV, film, literature and more. Roselyn made a special guest appearance in The Rookie Season 2, Episode 16, “The Overnight,” as Valerie Castillo, a reporter with unclear motives that befriends Chen, despite Tim’s reservations. The couple also starred alongside each other in the 2019 Hallmark movie, A Taste of Summer, on the Hallmark channel. The film follows Sous chef Gabby (Sánchez) who left her job in NYC to move to her sister’s small town of Bright Shore to open her own restaurant. Caleb (played by Winter) runs a nearby restaurant and is not pleased when Gabby’s restaurant comes to town.
“We had a blast but our process is very different. This was a light-hearted romantic comedy, so there was no point in us being all crazy serious. I goof around on set and have fun with everybody,” Winter said about the film in an interview with 2019 interview with Us Magazine. “Roselyn was so serious. I was looking at her like, ‘Why do you look like you want to kill me? We’re working together, we’re supposed to be falling in love!’”
Sánchez and Winter also launched a podcast together, He Said, Ella Dijo, on iHeartRadio in 2019. Sánchez spoke about the exciting venture with her husband on the PEOPLE Every Day Podcast in December 2022. “We’re like opposites and everybody, nobody understands how we — with now 17 years together, two kids later — people always go, ‘How the heck do you guys make it work? Because you guys disagree on everything,'” she said in the interview. “But it’s funny, you know? We do it with respect, we do it with honesty.” The podcast was originally meant to cover pop culture and related issues, but “now, it has become like an outlet,” Sanchez also told the site. “It is almost like a therapy session for all, every single episode.”
The Rookie airs on Tuesdays at 8 p.m. on ABC.
For more on Eric Winter, learn more about how the Soaps Alum Threw Gasoline on Eric Braeden/Eva Longoria dra.a
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<p><strong>Why We Loved It:</strong> In 1990, the supernova that was ABC’s short-lived David Lynch series was something altogether new, a traditional soap on an alternately dreamy and nightmarish acid trip. <strong>We’ll Never Forget:</strong> The Season 2 episode that revealed that Laura Palmer had been killed by her possessed father. <strong>Fun Fact:</strong> In 2017’s Showtime revival, Lynch muse Laura Dern finally gave a face to Diane Evans, the FBI secretary to whom Special Agent Dale Cooper was always dictating messages.</p>
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<p><strong>Why We Love It:</strong> Taylor Sheridan’s Paramount Network Western pulls no punches, and neither do any of the members of the rough-and-tumble Dutton family. Well, maybe Jamie. (But he’s adopted.) <strong>We’ll Never Forget:</strong> The outta-control Season 4 finale that gunned down John, took aim at Kayce and blew up Beth. Or <em>tried</em> to, anyway. <strong>Fun Fact:</strong> As of Season 5, Sheridan has written or co-written every episode of the series, which has thus far spawned two prequels, <em>1883</em> and <em>1932</em>.</p>
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<p><strong>Why We Loved It:</strong> As much as we may hate actually going to see the doctor, we can’t get enough of medical dramas set in hospitals. Plus, this long-running NBC series featured George Clooney, whose Dr. Doug Ross was the original McDreamy. <strong>We’ll Never Forget:</strong> The Season 2 episode in which Ross saved a child trapped in a storm drain left us breathless and helped propel Clooney to superstardom. <strong>Fun Fact:</strong> The series was created by Michael Crichton. Yes, the same man who gave us <em>Jurassic Park. </em></p>
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<p><strong>Why We Loved It:</strong> There was no “there” to which Tyler Perry’s OWN soap wouldn’t go. Yet neither Jeffrey Harrington stabbing his homophobic Mommie Dearest in the breast implant nor Veronica Harrington setting her estranged husband on fire is <strong>What We’ll Never Forget:</strong> That would be Crystal R. Fox’s fierce portrayal of long-suffering Hanna Young. <strong>Fun Fact:</strong> In 2022, Tika Sumpter, who played Candace Young, tied the knot with co-star Nicholas James, aka off-kilter Officer Justin Lewis.</p>
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<p><strong>Why We Loved It:</strong> Over the course of its 2016-22 run, the creators of the NBC series proved master manipulators where our emotional well-being was concerned. <strong>We’ll Never Forget:</strong> The unbreakable bond between the Big Three — the Pearson siblings. <strong>Fun Fact:</strong> So upset were fans upon learning that a slow cooker was the cause of Jack Pearson’s death that the makers of the responsible appliance posted a Facebook message addressing the incident. “We love [Jack], and we love you, too. Don’t further add to our heartbreak by no longer using Crock-Pot Slow Cookers.” </p>
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<p><strong>Why We Love It:</strong> Unlike its American brethren, the British sudser makes a big deal of the “little people.” In fact, you’d be hard-pressed to find a “have” amongst the “have-nots” who populate Albert Square and hang at its beloved Queen Vic pub. <strong>We’ll Never Forget:</strong> The 2008 tearjerker in which Dot Cotton recorded an episode-long farewell monologue to former hubby Jim. <strong>Fun Fact:</strong> For 28 years running, June Brown’s Dot wore the same dress on Christmas Day. </p>
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<p><strong>Why We Loved It:</strong> In a way, we grew up with the characters on Aaron Spelling’s 1990-2000 Fox hit, which originated as the fish-out-of-water story of sheltered Minnesota twins transferred to schmancy West Beverly High. <strong>We’ll Never Forget:</strong> The heated debates that erupted over Season 3’s Brenda/Dylan/Kelly triangle. <strong>Fun Fact:</strong> Since the network wasn’t initially as sold on Luke Perry or the character of Dylan McKay as Spelling was, the EP at first paid the future teen idol’s salary himself.</p>
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<p><strong>Why We Loved It:</strong> While we could wax poetic about the shocking plot twists which befell the Lyon family as they fought for control of their hip-hop dynasty, the truth is, what we <em>really</em> loved was Taraji P. Henson’s trash-talking Cookie. <strong>We’ll Never Forget:</strong> Sadly, the show will likely be most remembered for star Jussie Smollett staging a fake attack against himself. <strong>Fun Fact:</strong> Henson darn near got a spinoff focused on her character, but that Cookie crumbled before the proposed show could launch.</p>
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<p><strong>Why We Love It:</strong> Nineteen seasons in, Shonda Rhimes’ medical drama never forgets that sometimes all it takes to get a <span style="text-decoration: line-through">patient</span> series off life support is a transfusion of fresh blood. <strong>We’ll Never Forget:</strong> Season 5’s finale, which kept us waiting till the last second to learn whether Izzie Stevens or George O’Malley died. <strong>Fun Fact:</strong> Original cast member Ellen Pompeo was TV’s highest-paid actress — to the tune of $20M/year — when she stepped away from her role of Meredith Grey in 2022.</p>
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<p><strong>Why We Loved It:</strong> The suburbs-set 2004-12 series beautifully combined slapstick comedy with dark drama while chronicling the lives of Wisteria Lane’s residents… as seen through the eyes of a dead neighbor! <strong>We’ll Never Forget:</strong> Early in Season 1, Gabrielle Solis mowed her lawn in a full-length evening gown to prevent her hubby from finding out their hunky young gardener had been too busy tending to her needs to do the chore himself. <strong>Fun Fact:</strong> Said gardener was played by none other than a post-<em>Passions</em>, pre-<em>Chesapeake Shores</em> Jesse Metcalfe.</p>
Image: Fox/Courtesy of the Everett Collection
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<p><strong>Why We Loved It:</strong> After Aaron Spelling spiked his <em>Beverly Hills, 90210</em> spinoff with <em>Dynasty</em> vet Heather Locklear as Amanda Woodward, it went from plain and boring to wild and crazy. <strong>We’ll Never Forget:</strong> The Season 2 scene in which a back-from-the-dead Kimberly Shaw ripped off her wig to reveal her scarred head. <strong>Fun Fact:</strong> Years after the show ended, Locklear dated and even got engaged to former leading man Jack Wagner, who’d played her love/hate interest, Dr. Peter Burns.</p>
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<p><strong>Why We Loved It:</strong> ABC’s answer to <em>Dallas</em> was heavy on the glitz and glamour and even heavier on the catfights and spectacles. (Moldavian massacre, anyone?) <strong>We’ll Never Forget:</strong> Joan Collins’ Season 2 debut as Blake Carrington’s ex, Alexis, who elevated bitchcraft to an art form and moved the series out of Dullsville. <strong>Fun Fact:</strong> The role of the scheme queen was originally supposed to go to Sophia Loren. Elizabeth Taylor and Jessica Walter were also pursued, Collins told <em>W</em> in 2018. </p>
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<p><strong>Why We Loved It:</strong> Based on Grace Metalious’ novel, ABC’s 1964-69 serial about a small town with big secrets was so addictive that at one point, three new episodes aired every week. <strong>We’ll Never Forget:</strong> Lee Grant’s stunning turn as the sublimely cynical Stella Chernak. <strong>Fun Fact:</strong> The exit of rising star Mia Farrow in 1966 not only killed the popular Allison/Rodney/Betty triangle with Ryan O’Neal and Barbara Parkins’ characters, it began the series’ slide toward the primetime graveyard.</p>
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<p><strong>Why We Loved It:</strong> Only one thing ran deeper than the oil wells on CBS’ 1978-91 smash, and that was the grudges onto which the Ewing and Barnes families held with a viselike grip. <strong>We’ll Never Forget:</strong> The Season 9 finale, in which the “late” Bobby Ewing stepped out of sometime wife Pamela’s shower and erased Season 8. <strong>Fun Fact:</strong> The Season 4 episode that resolved the “Who shot J.R.?” cliffhanger is the second-highest-rated primetime telecast ever. (FYI, Kristin Shepard did it.)</p>
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