Chris McKenna mark harding joey buchanan yr oltl jpi
Credit: Jill Johnson/JPI

“We’re married!!”

Once upon a time, Young & Restless‘ Detective Harding was on of the good guys — and his banter with Paul gave us the Genoa City buddy cop show we never knew we needed! But then he turned out to be working with Jack’s lookalike, Marco, and killed Courtney on her wedding day to Noah.

More: Christel Khalil has a special message for her fiancé

For his own wedding day, however, Harding’s former portrayer Chris McKenna faired far better! Though it might have helped keep the drama down seeing as how virtually no one knew about said wedding — at least until now!

“Can’t keep it a secret any longer,” McKenna tweeted. “We eloped during the pandemic. I’m so happy, so proud, and so very deeply in love with this woman. Min älskling. Alltid. Introducing the incredible, the brilliant, the amazing, Mrs. Lovisa McKenna!”

For those wondering, “Min älskling. Alltid,” is Swedish for, “My darling. Always.” In fact, it’s far from the first time McKenna’s referred to his love as “älskling,” or broken out the Swedish to declare his feelings for her.

And don’t worry about missing the wedding. It sounds like the two may have some photos to share in the future. Over on Instagram, the actor, who got his start playing a young Joey Buchanan on One Life to Live, promised that they’d “have a proper ceremony in future.”

Of course, eloping or not, the news shouldn’t comes as a complete surprise to fans, as McKenna proposed to his longtime girlfriend on Christmas morning of 2020 and shared the experience on Instagram in a series of adorable photos.

“For the smiles,” he wrote, “here’s my soon-to-be fiancée figuring out why I’m kneeling.”

It looks like it didn’t take long to figure it out — or to say yes!

Young & Restless‘ Christian Jules LeBlanc (Michael) and Jessica Collins (ex-Avery) both offered their former co-star heartfelt “Congrats” on Twitter. Over on Instagram, Ryan Phillippe, who got his start playing Joey’s friend Billy over on One Life to Live offered the same.

And of course we have to offer our heartfelt congratulations now too, as we wish the newly married couple many, many happy years ahead!

Check out our photo gallery of some more Young & Restless stars and their real-life partners!