Actress 'remarries' at 82

Channing won a Tony award in 1964

Veteran actress Carol Channing, most famous for her role in Broadway musical Hello Dolly, has married her childhood sweetheart Harry Kullijian, it has been reported.

Kullijian, 83, was surprised to hear from the 82-year-old actress, according to the San Francisco Chronicle.

"I thought she was dead," he said when he heard Channing wanted to get in touch.

The pair were high school sweethearts before Channing's mother split them up over fears her daughter was too forward, according to the paper.

After finding each other again, Kullijian, a California land developer, said: "She still had the same spark. I just knew it was the right thing to do."

The couple married in a San Francisco suburb on Saturday, said the paper. It is Channing's fourth marriage and Kullijian's second.

Channing at an event in 1996

Channing referred to her new husband in her recent autobiography, Just Lucky I Guess. "The leader of the school band was Harry Kullijian. I was so in love with Harry; I couldn't stop hugging him."

The Washington-born actress played Dolly Gallagher Levi in the 1964 Broadway production of Hello Dolly. The musical won 10 Tony awards including Channing's for best actress in a comedy.