Stephen Graham's wife almost left him for a Spanish man.

The 53-year-old Adolescence actor has been with his wife Hannah for 33 years but he admitted the early days of their relationship were not smooth sailing and she almost left him for another man after being "friends with benefits" for five years.

Stephen - who tied the knot with Hannah in 2008 and has daughter Grace, 21, and son Alfie, 19, with her - told The Table Manners podcast: "We were friends with benefits. I was s*** at that time. I had commitment issues. We were both young I was 20 and she was 19.

"But what happened was she went to Spain and she was there for a little bit and met this fella called Paco.

"She was gone for a while and came back and we'd never been on a proper date but it was one of those that you don't really know what your in until it's gone.

He continued: 'So that's what happened and when she came back she was like, 'I'm going to move to Spain for Paco'.

"So I was like, 'What do you mean?' and she said, 'I've met this fella called Paco and I'm going to go back and I'm going to live in Spain'.

"And I asked, 'Why' and she said, 'Well there's nothing here is there really', and I was like, 'Can I take you on a date?' and she was like, 'What!'"

Stephen revealed he finally declared his love for Hannah on their first date, five years after they first got together.

He said: "All that time we had never been on a date, we went to the pictures and watched Saving Private Ryan and went to a restaurant across the road.

"But we ended up at New Cross Station and she was going to Spain in two days so my a** went I've got to try and pull this out the bag somehow.

"And I don't know where it came from but I went, 'I love you', and she said 'I've been waiting five years for you to say that'.

"She never went to Spain and within three days we moved in together. Thankfully Paco packed off."

Stephen previously revealed Hannah gave up her acting career in order to raise their children and allow him to pursue his own career.

Speaking on The Romesh Ranganathan Show, Stephen said: "Hannah kind of put her career on hold completely while I tried to pursue the acting.

"She went and did a teaching job. She was a teacher. She taught sixth form A-level Drama and English and she did other jobs as well. Do you know what I mean? In order to try and keep me going in many ways.

"Ultimately that was a massive sacrifice and that's something I'm so grateful for because her ultimate aim and goal [was to be an actress] when she was younger.

"She's had opportunities now and you know hopefully she will have more. But she put that on hold for me which is something that I'll always cherish because of the faith and the backing that she gave me in them situations."