Benjamin Ayres is an old pro at falling in love onscreen, having starred in two dozen Hallmark movies over the last decade. But offscreen? Ayres, 49, was admittedly pretty rusty at falling in love in real life when he met entrepreneur Caitlyn Crosby, with whom he hard-launched a new relationship on June 6, 2026.
Ayres, who stars in the new “When Calls the Heart” hit prequel series “Hope Valley: 1874,” recently told EntertainmentNow that falling in love again later in life has unexpectedly impacted his work in the best way.
Benjamin Ayres Says He Forgot How ‘Electric’ a First Kiss Can Be
Benjamin AyresAyres and his ex-wife, Erin, amicably separated over three years ago, he told EntertainmentNow in June, and his blossoming romance with Crosby took him by surprise.
They first connected to talk about a possible collaboration between her philanthropic jewelry company, The Giving Keys, and his fundraising and community-building initiative for Hallmark fans, called Romance University. But emails led to Zoom calls, which led to their first meeting in Los Angeles, where Crosby lives with her two kids.
As their relationship grew, Crosby visited Ayres on the Vancouver sets of his Hallmark projects, including 2025’s “A Christmas Angel Match” and “1874.” Since they live on opposite coasts, they try to see each other at least twice a month, he said, including some California fun over the 4th of July weekend.
When asked whether falling in love again has impacted his work, Ayres said, “I’m gonna be very honest here. You almost forget, when you’ve been married a long time, you forget how exciting that first kiss is. I used to think, ‘Okay, it’s special,’ but now I’m like, ‘Ohhh, it is electric! Literally brushing up against somebody, just smelling them, laughing, being in it? I forgot about that.”
“Sure, I always projected it (in scenes), and it’s not that the audience will notice it more through me now,” Ayres continued, “but it was a nice reminder for me just how powerful that first kiss really is. So yeah, that changed a lot.”
Benjamin Ayres Says He Also Has a New Level of Empathy for Friends & Characters Navigating Parenthood After a Breakup
Ayres is a devoted dad to Evie and Isadora, the two daughters he shares with his ex-wife, and told EntertainmentNow that he’s “forever grateful for the amicable relationship Erin and I continue to have, and how we’ve been able to navigate it the way that we have.”
The “True Justice” star said the experience has given him a greater understanding of the challenges of single parenting. He’s not only connected in a new way with others in the same boat, but sees characters in many of his Hallmark projects through a new lens.
Ayres explained, “My empathy is so much more now for single parents. For single mothers, it’s a lot. For single fathers, it’s a lot. You’re navigating a whole new world. I had some expectations for my life, and those have shifted. I found myself going, ‘Now, what? What am I now?’ There’s a real sense of identity within being a father and a husband, and once you lose that, there’s a real identity conundrum.”
“It’s something, again, you don’t really think about it until you go through it,” Ayres continued. “Maybe I had thought about it in the past, or I played characters that had gone through it, but there’s nothing that is like actually going through it. I’m able to bring a lot more to those worlds, having gone through this.”
“Now I’ve bonded with men and women that have gone through it in a completely different way,” he said. “In fact, I love it now. I love having those conversations, because you don’t get to have them with those that are married. It’s all experience-based. If you’ve experienced it, you want to talk about it and learn from it.”
Ayres and the “Hope Valley: 1874” cast will return for a second season in 2027, and his third “True Justice” movie with Nikki DeLoach and Kat McNamara has already been filmed, likely to premiere later this year.
