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Linda Purl and Patrick Duffy were acquaintances before they became a couple. They reconnected through mutual contacts and messages, then grew close during long video calls in 2020. After Duffy told Purl he loved her, he drove from Oregon to Colorado to see her in person. Their relationship later included shared acting work and a sourdough venture.
How did Linda Purl and Patrick Duffy meet?
They had crossed paths years before their romance. Purl recalled seeing Duffy in London while their mutual friend Richard Thomas was performing Art on the West End, and later encountering him in Los Angeles. Accounts also mention a convention meeting. The exact sequence of those earlier encounters varies, but both described themselves as longtime acquaintances rather than strangers.
They reconnected through mutual contacts, including a group text involving Thomas, shortly before the pandemic disrupted work and travel. Occasional messages turned into frequent video calls. In their 2021 BroadwayWorld interview, they described those conversations becoming more personal over time.
How did Linda Purl and Patrick Duffy fall in love over Zoom?
During 2020, FaceTime and Zoom calls gave them time to talk at length while they were apart. Purl reflected on the unusual pace of those conversations: “When in any of our lives do you have time to chat in such a relaxed manner for two to three hours every day?” she said in the Soap Opera Digest interview.
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Duffy said he blurted out “Okay, good-bye, I love you” at the end of one call. Not long afterward, he drove from Oregon to Colorado to visit Purl. They described their first in-person meeting in her driveway as both awkward and exhilarating. Duffy recalled: “Standing opposite each other in her driveway was one of the most exhilarating and awkward moments of my life.” They said it was also their first in-person kiss.
Entertainment Tonight identifies the start of their relationship as summer 2020. The couple’s accounts establish the broad progression—from earlier acquaintance, to renewed contact, to frequent calls and an in-person visit—but do not establish one definitive day for when the romance began. Entertainment Tonight’s 2022 interview also recounts their pandemic-era courtship.
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What projects have Purl and Duffy worked on together?
Their relationship has overlapped with their professional lives. Entertainment Tonight reported that they appeared together on a seven-month overseas theater tour after beginning their courtship and filmed together in Canada during quarantine. They later played an on-screen couple on The Bold and the Beautiful. Soap Opera Digest reported that the show’s producer brought Purl in as a new love interest for Duffy’s character.
Independent reader supportYour contribution helps us test, update, and keep practical guides available for everyone.What is Duffy’s Dough?
Duffy’s Dough is the couple’s shared sourdough-starter business, described in their interviews as offering starter for people baking sourdough at home. Soap Opera Digest reported that the starter had been in Duffy’s family for 72 years. That figure refers to the reported family history of the starter—not to the age of the business or its sales.
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