Yes, total cringe! It's an affectation, basically. One of the things Mr Sutton does to show us JP is gay, in case you'd forgotten. Like softening his voice. He has a repertoire of tics that he uses, regardless of context. One of the many many things that I could never buy about his relationship with Ste (apart from the fact that Ste would probably have punched him in the face rather than date him).

Euuuuuuuurgh.

And I can think of plenty of suitable nicknames for John Paul, but none of them are printable.
****

No, it's very cringey, no idea why he has started to use it but he needs to stop

Lol glad to see so many others annoyed by this

Your not so alone after all

Can always rely on the good old moaners on DS

Love the DS moaners.

I'm a JP fan, but I really hope he drops it.

it's patronising

Audreh Roberts on Corrie uses it all the time but pronounces it Sweed-tart

I think it's fine when a woman of a certain age uses it.

It's just the least natural thing to ever say outside of a child/elder relationship.

And I agree that's it's incredibly patronizing. It's like he was looking at Ste like some baby that needed coddling when the sweetheart made its first appearance when he was listening to Ste talk about his dead parents. I know JP couldn't hope to relate to and understand most of the things Ste's gone through in his life, but he could have come up with something actually empathetic to say instead of... 'sweetheart'.
And it's not something any of these writers is scripting, and it won't be the last time we hear it.

Just one more thing on top of the other million things that makes you think, 'what are these 2 seeing each other that's supposed to be making us think they want to be together now?'