Inside When Calls the Heart's Erin Krakow & Ben Rosenbaum's Love Story

'When Calls the Heart' Stars Erin Krakow & Ben Rosenbaum Welcome First Baby 10 Months After Wedding

Erin Krakow and Ben Rosenbaum have entered a new season.

And no, we don’t just mean on their Hallmark Channel show When Calls the Heart.

"Our precious new family member entered the world in early April," the couple recently told People via email of welcoming their baby girl. "Our daughter has been the greatest gift, and we are loving getting to know her better with each passing day."

So while they’ll always be Elizabeth Thornton and Mike Hickam to fans, Krakow and Rosenbaum are also happy to take on the parts of Mom and Dad.

"It's already hard to remember life before she arrived," the actors noted in their statement. "We are loving our roles as parents, and it feels like being parents together has only deepened our partnership.”

It’s a partnership that first began when Krakow and Rosenbaum were cast in the 2009 production of The Importance of Being Earnest at the Guthrie Theater in Minneapolis, where she played Cecily Cardew and he understudied both Jack Worthing and Algernon Moncrieff.

"I actually saw her working the first time we met and really just developed a crush on her talent," the 39-year-old recalled to EntertainmentNow in November. "She’s just so good on stage and on screen.”

While their relationship started as platonic, Rosenbaum continued, "after production ended and she went back to New York, I was doing a national tour that started and ended in New York. So we had more opportunities to connect, and a romance developed from there."

Their careers continued to grow, too. In 2014, When Calls the Heart, based on Janette Oke’s novels, premiered with the IRL pair inhabiting teacher Elizabeth and Hope Valley resident Mike. And while Krakow and Rosenbaum work in the spotlight, they prefer to keep their romance out of it.

Rodin Eckenroth/Getty Images for Hallmark

Sure, there had been signs of their romance for years—like when they posted photos from their vacations in Italy and New York with their costars and fellow couple Kevin McGarry and Kayla Wallace in 2022. But it was their January 2023 Instagram posts that really fueled dating speculation for Hearties.

Sharing a snap of their dog Willoughby, Krakow tagged Rosenbaum and wrote, "We adopted him a week ago and I already can’t imagine life without him.”

Emphasis on the we.

In his own post, Rosenbaum tagged Krakow and uploaded a photo of their adorable pet, which he captioned, "Willoughby mine?"

Additional couples' trips and social media posts seemed to hint that the castmates were more than just friends. Still, it wasn’t until February 2024 that they put the relationship rumors to rest: Krakow uploaded a photo to Instagram of her kissing Rosenbaum on the cheek, and he gave followers a peek at the background of his phone—an image of her holding Willoughby.

"First thing I see when I wake up. Last thing I see before sleep," he wrote on Instagram. "Happy Valentines Day."

As time went on, Rosenbaum and Krakow continued to offer rare glimpses into their romance.

“Happy Birthday @ben_rosenbaum,” the Army Wives alum captioned a photo of The Christmas Cup star with their dog in March 2025. “You take such good care of us. And you make the world laugh. What more could we ask for?”

Well, Rosenbaum did ask for Krakow’s hand in marriage as they announced that June that they’d privately tied the knot. And just before Thanksgiving 2025, the pair revealed they were expecting a baby—captioning the pregnancy announcement, “So much to be grateful for!!!”

Indeed, Krakow and Rosenbaum couldn’t wait to see how their family’s plot continued to unfold. As he wrote alongside a sweet social media shout-out in December, "6 months of wedded bliss. 5 months of growing our baby. 1 lifetime of love in front of us @erinkrakow."

Over the next few months, Krakow and Rosenbaum continued to share more about their road to parenthood, posting photos of her bump, baby moon in Ojai, Calif. and “date night for Mom & Dad” at red carpet events.

“He takes very good care of me,” she raved on The Official Hearties Show & Podcast in December while discussing how he supported her at the Hallmark Christmas Experience. "It’s sort of funny. We went such a long time being pretty private about our relationship, and I imagine we will continue to do so. But it was fun to get to give people a peek behind the curtain a little bit in that way—getting to spend the weekend with all of the fans. And yeah, Ben’s a pretty fantastic husband and partner, and he’s going to be a great dad."

Now that their little one is here, keep reading to see more costars who developed a romance offscreen.

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