The young actress with whom Charles Dickens had a long relationship was Ellen Ternan.
Ellen Lawless Ternan was an English actress born in 1839 into a theatrical family. She began performing on stage as a child, alongside her sisters, and continued working in provincial theatre. Dickens met her in 1857, when she appeared with her mother and sister in performances of The Frozen Deep, a play associated with Dickens and Wilkie Collins.
Dickens was 45 when he met the 18-year-old Ternan. His marriage to Catherine Dickens deteriorated soon afterward, and the couple separated in 1858. Ternan left the stage in 1860 and was financially supported by Dickens. She and her mother lived in homes rented under false names, and Ternan was with Dickens during the 1865 Staplehurst rail crash.
The relationship was kept secret, and many relevant letters were destroyed. For that reason, historians agree on the association but continue to debate its precise nature. Ternan later married George Wharton Robinson in 1876 and raised a family. She remained publicly silent about Dickens until her death in 1914.