Hilarie Burton "thoroughly enjoys" knowing other school moms have a crush on Jeffrey Dean Morgan

Hilarie told People magazine: "I have just thoroughly enjoyed all the moms at school having a crush on him.

"I keep getting text messages from high school friends, and they're all like, 'My wife or my mom has a huge crush on your husband.'

"[They] should. He's great."

Hilarie is delighted Destination X has introduced people to a new side of Jeffrey, rather than just associating him with his Walking Dead alter ego Negan.

She said: "Destination X was awesome because I knew how funny and charming he was in real life as opposed to the characters he plays.

"I think it makes you appreciate Negan Smith more when you see the person behind it, because he is such a funny, sweet man.

"When he has to go play this dastardly creature, it shows you what range he possesses."

Jeffrey previously credited Hilarie for him taking on the presenting job on the NBC reality show.

He told People magazine: "I am not like a typical host. I'm not Ryan Seacrest - who I love, and I think he's excellent at his job - but that's not me.

"I'm a bit on the crass side, and I've got a very sarcastic sense of humour, and I didn't picture it.

"[Hilarie] said - in a very nice way, but much more diplomatic than I'm going to make it seem now - 'You're not getting any younger.' "

Last month, Hilarie made a surprise return as Lucille in TWD: Dead City on 15 June, when Negan hallucinated his dead spouse after suffering a head injury, and emotionally apologised for failing to keep his cancer-stricken wife alive.

And Hilarie has praised her husband's performance and genuine emotion in the scene, which was filmed just days after his father's death.

She told People magazine: "Please forgive me if I get upset. I just watched it. I didn't see it on Sunday. This was a really hard episode to shoot.

"What people didn't know is that, throughout this season, Jeff's dad was dying. He had died like six days before we shot this scene.

"Watching this man that I love so much hold that grief and really have to focus at work and hold it together, I wouldn't cry except I just watched it.

"It was really, really amazing to watch the person you love most in the world be able to do that. He was able to channel a lot of the grief he was feeling for his dad into this episode while not letting anyone down."