Anything said by an actor I take with a grain of salt because they’re only told so much. I do remember what Red192 mentioned about the creators wanting to explore the idea of what happens when you’ve lost your true love but they haven’t said anything about it being impossible and we know of very few cases on the show that they’ve actually called or we’ve seen magical evidence of true love.
I would include in these: Snowing (wakes from sleeping curses), RumBelle (Dark One curse), and Aurora & Phillip (wakes from sleeping curse – what is their shipper name??). These have been proven through magical means.
I made a point to not include any that have not been shown to us as definitive true love. That includes Ruby & Peter, Regina & Daniel (it clearly affected her, could have been, but I don’t remember any proof other than her want of revenge which leads to…), Hook & Milah (again, centuries of wanting revenge, has the tattoo, and yes Rumple suggested it was “twue luv” when Hook protected Milah by not saying she was alive and Milah tried to protect him but no magical proof).
So I hold out hope that those still living who have lost their exes to death are not lost souls forever. The show has shown what true love is capable of and it’s positive stuff. For the time being I hold the others as screwups and if they can manage to change their ways they will hopefully find true love. (This would include Red, Regina, and Hook).
I’m sure I’m leaving a lot of people out but things have definitely been hinted at or seen that some of these people have moved on or tried to move on and just haven’t had much luck (*cough* Red *cough*) and the writers are always saying they’re interested to see IF some of these people can turn their lives around and maybe find love again.
Keeper of Hook's Trenchcoat.