James Trevena may be playing a romantic leading man for Hallmark, but his real-life love story started long before he put on Sir Griffin de Beauford’s armor. His longtime partner is Ivana Baquero, the Spanish actress who played Ofelia in Guillermo del Toro’s Pan’s Labyrinth.
The 40-year-old stars opposite Julie Gonzalo in A Knight to Remember, which premiered Oct. 3. His relationship with Baquero has lasted more than a decade, according to TV Insider’s Swooon.
Trevena accompanied Baquero to the Oct. 1 Los Angeles screening marking Pan’s Labyrinth‘s 20th anniversary, according to Just Jared.
Baquero was 11 when she played the film’s young heroine. In a 2014 interview with the Universitat Oberta de Catalunya, she recalled drawing on her own experiences and feelings to understand the character at an age when she had little formal technique to rely on.
A Quiet ‘Shannara’ Romance Led to a 2020 Engagement
The love of my life ♥ 💍 We will officially be going by our celebrity couple name “Ivana” as she is the only celebrity. Thank you. #ladsontour #engaged
— James Trevena (@James43nz) August 31, 2020
A year before their relationship began, Baquero had told the university that she was hesitant about committing to television. A series would require a longer stretch of her time than a film, complicating her other projects and law studies. She had chosen distance learning because acting regularly took her away from home.
She and Trevena met while filming The Shannara Chronicles in New Zealand and began dating in April 2015. Baquero played Eretria, while Trevena appeared as Crispin Edensong, captain of the royal guard protecting Princess Amberle.
Looking back in a 2020 Instagram post reproduced by Swooon, Trevena said they initially avoided being seen together too often because nobody on set knew they were a couple. Instead, they opened their trailer windows and smiled at each other from across the way.
By September 2017, Trevena was accompanying Baquero on a promotional trip to Spain for the show’s second season. They explored Madrid together, and he celebrated his 31st birthday with her family in Barcelona, HOLA! reported. Her parents had also spent time with the couple in New Zealand.
Trevena announced their engagement on Aug. 31, 2020, sharing photographs of Baquero with her diamond ring. His caption included a proposed celebrity couple name that gave her all the billing.
They Celebrated 10 Years Together in April 2025
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Trevena marked the anniversary with photographs of the couple and a message about how easily he had fallen in love with Baquero. “But to have you love me back, that was the true gift,” he wrote, before describing his hope that she would remain his partner through their last kiss.
Their dog, Scruffy, also featured in earlier glimpses of their life together. In 2021, Baquero gave Trevena a family portrait that included the pet. A later photograph showed her birthday cake decorated in the dog’s likeness, Swooon reported.
Baquero described a working life spent moving between countries in a May 2025 interview with Cadena SER‘s Tot és Comèdia. She said she did not live in one fixed place because productions took her around the world, sometimes requiring six months in New Zealand.
His Hallmark Character Comes to Life in a Chicago Museum
In A Knight to Remember, a statue of an English knight arrives in Chicago for an art exhibit. Gonzalo plays Emily, the museum conservator whose impulsive kiss brings him to life while she is cleaning the sculpture, according to Hallmark.
The film adapts Bryn Donovan’s Her Knight at the Museum, published by Berkley in November 2024. The publisher identifies the novel as the source for the television movie.
The movie is available on Hallmark+, with another Hallmark Channel showing scheduled for Oct. 7 at 8 p.m. Eastern. Trevena also appears opposite Andie MacDowell in A Grand Biltmore Christmas, according to his network biography.
That film’s cast includes Holland Roden, Niall Matter and Jonathan Frakes. Hallmark has scheduled its premiere for Dec. 5 at 8 p.m. Eastern, with streaming on Hallmark+ the following day.