Hallmark's Jack Wagner & Josie Bissett Have A Long History Of Working Together

Actors Jack Wagner and Josie Bissett go way back. The duo first met on the steamy Fox sudser "Melrose Place," where Bissett portrayed Jane Mancini and Wagner played Dr. Peter Burns. Since then, they've reunited several times, first for Hallmark's "The Wedding March" movie franchise from 2016 to 2021, followed by joining the cast of the hit drama "When Calls the Heart" from 2017 to 2018. The moment he laid eyes on Bissett, Wagner recalls being struck by her beauty. "I think it had to be [...] like a cast photo shoot," Wagner said in their joint interview for USA Today. "I just remember walking in the makeup trailer [...] and seeing her without makeup and going, 'My God, that's the most beautiful woman I've ever seen without makeup on.'"

They didn't exactly establish a relationship during their time on "Melrose." "We didn't really know each other," she once told TooFab. But since reuniting on "Wedding March," she and Wagner have become Hallmark besties. It was then that the two discovered they have a natural chemistry. "We have similar senses of humor. We get each other, and that's hard to find in this business," Bissett stressed to Soap Opera Digest.

Similarly, Wagner says it's always fun working with Bissett. In fact, he has a special nickname for her: Toad. "Because everyday it's like Toad's Wild Ride at Disney," Wagner explained in a promotional interview for "Wedding March 2."  

Given their long history of working together, some may wonder whether Jack Wagner and Josie Bissett ever developed romantic feelings for each other. The truth is they've always had a platonic relationship; Bissett has been happily married to her husband Thomas Doig since 2017, and she was previously married to actor and former "Melrose Place" co-star, Rob Estes. Meanwhile, Wagner is divorced from "General Hospital's" Kristina Wagner, with whom he shares two sons, since 2006. Still, given the Hallmark stars' strong on-screen chemistry, one could say Bissett is like Wagner's work wife.

"We're sort of like this unmarried couple that is almost married because we kind of finish each other's sentences, wipe each other's mouth off and clean each other's clothes," Wagner said of his bond with Bissett, per TooFab. "It's one of those things." 

In 2016, Wagner also jokingly referred to Bissett as his work spouse during a promotional interview on New York Live for "The Wedding March." Noting that he had to go shop with Bissett as an executive producer for the film, Wagner quipped, "I sat there [while she shopped for] jeans, blouses, the whole thing ... You know that old saying, 'Happy wife, happy life?' Happy leading lady, happy life!" But that's as far as things go between the two. "We just have such a great close friendship," Bissett told TooFab. "We're just really lucky to have been able to connect this way."