It’s been reported today that tragically, and just one month after her fairytale wedding, Hollyoaks star Gemma Merna’s dad Dennis has passed away unexpectedly.

Gemma, who of course plays Carmel McQueen, married Ian Minton at the end of May, and of course, her proud dad walked her down the aisle and spent some time posing with Gemma and Ian for photographs that appeared in a magazine two weeks later.

The Sun reports, “Speaking at the wedding breakfast, Dennis joked that he was delighted to be proved wrong in his belief that no one was good enough for his daughter.”

A source close the family told the paper, “Gemma is too shocked to talk to anyone about what happened…”

Gemma has of course recently been portraying a storyline in Hollyoaks in which her character has suffered facial burns, and earlier this week, she spoke about how “inspirational” real life burns victim Katie Piper had been in overcoming and recovering from an acid attack that left her with horrendous scarring.

Gemma is also fronting a campaign that seeks to make young people aware of the dangers of using sunbeds, and also to bring about a change in the law that would mean under 18 year olds couldn’t use the tanning devices which are known to cause skin cancer.

But to get back to Gemma’s sad news, it hasn’t been revealed what brought about Dennis’s death, but we will of course keep you posted.

Our thoughts are of course with Gemma and her family.