How Coronation Street star Bill Roache’s life has been hit by tragedy

He’s the very best paid actor on the cobbled, terraced street of Coronation Street, incomes a staggering £250,000 a 12 months.

But the spectacular wage of cleaning soap star Bill Roache – well-known for his beloved function as Ken Barlow in Corrie – did not preserve him immune from monetary and private tragedy. 

Making his debut on Corrie’s very first episode in December 1960, Roache, 91, has gone on to carry the Guinness World Record for the longest serving actor in any tv cleaning soap opera. 

He landed his function as Ken on the age of 28, earlier than – unbeknownst to him – he could be hit by the demise of two daughters, a fling with a co-star that may result in the breakdown of his marriage, and monetary woes to final greater than three many years. 

And now Roache has suffered his newest disaster, given three months to clear his debt to HMRC yesterday morning – which means he must promote his dwelling in Wilmslow, Cheshire, to pay a tax invoice of greater than £500,000. The case was adjourned for 12 weeks, till June, for the home to be bought and the remaining stability paid off. 

Not in contrast to his character Ken, who developed a repute as a women’ man, Roache admitted he cheated on his first spouse – TV actress Anna Cropper – due to his big intercourse drive. 

Roache claimed to have bedded greater than 1,000 girls and blamed the breakdown of his first marriage on his incapability to cease dishonest. 

The star admitted to a fling with fellow Coronation Street star Patsy Phoenix – who performed Elsie Tanner from 1960 to 1984 – claiming the affair was a ‘one-off’ after Phoenix invited the star again to her flat. ‘She invited me spherical […] and we had just a few drinks, then one factor led to a different,’ mentioned Roache. Phoenix died of lung most cancers in 1986, having smoked 60 cigarettes a day. 

During his second marriage to his late spouse Sarah, who he married in 1978, Roache had many youngsters, dwelling to see each his partner and two daughters tragically die. 

His child Edwina died from pneumonia aged 18 months in 1983, earlier than his daughter Vanya handed away on the age of fifty in 2018 after battling liver failure. 

In an interview on the time, Roache revealed he had devastatingly received concerned in a automotive crash whereas speeding to see Vanya in hospital, which means he missed his remaining probability to see his baby earlier than her demise. Roache’s second spouse Sarah died of pure causes in 2009.  

The star was even arrested at his Cheshire dwelling in 2013 earlier than being discovered not responsible of two counts of rape and 4 counts of incident assault in 2014. 

At the time, previous and current forged members claimed Roache had been the sufferer of a merciless ‘movie star witchhunt’ – speeding to have fun his acquittal and slamming the ‘wasteful’ and ‘nonsense’ choice to prosecute him. 

Roache then paid a go to to the ‘Circle of Love’, the magical non secular sect he turned to for assist all through the rape trial. The actor was joined by his daughter Verity on the journey to the holistic centre in Ashton-under-Lyne, Manchester.

Despite his longstanding success on Coronation Street, Roache’s monetary downfall started many years into his appearing profession in 1991, when he gained a libel motion after The Sun branded him ‘boring’. 

The actor was awarded £50,000 after turning down the identical quantity in an out-of-court settlement – and was pressured to pay £120,000 in prices. Roache then spent much more cash suing his attorneys and misplaced. 

He was shockingly declared bankrupt in April 1999 – earlier than his collectors estimated he had unpaid money owed of £600,000 two years later. 

More than a decade later in 2012, Roache joined a tax-avoidance scheme, turning into a ‘designated member’ of Twofold First Services LLP, owned by an organization registered within the Cayman Islands. 

It was not confirmed how a lot Roache paid into the scheme, however he was one in every of 288 members who entered it, placing in a median of £1.75million. The scheme concerned claiming tax reduction from synthetic losses of a land-owning enterprise. 

A tribunal went on to rule in favour of HMRC, which efficiently concluded that Twofold was a ‘tax avoidance association’ – branded ‘abusive and synthetic’ by the Treasury. 

And Roache’s monetary woes haven’t been the one factor holding him up at night time. The star was shockingly arrested at his dwelling in 2013, earlier than being discovered not responsible by a jury of two counts of rape and 4 counts of indecent assault following a trial at Preston Crown Court in 2014. 

His love life has additionally been tumultuous – having endured a divorce in 1976 to his spouse of greater than a decade, Anna Cropper, following allegations of his infidelity. Roache went on to marry his beloved spouse Sarah in 1978, earlier than she handed away years later in 2009. 

Despite being the very best paid member of Coronation Street, Roache has lived in his Cheshire dwelling for the previous forty years. 

The home, constructed within the Nineteen Fifties, was designed by Roache’s beloved late spouse Sarah. 

The star described the house as his ‘haven’ the place he ‘feels at peace’ – a spot of consolation as he handled years of economic woes. 

The house is full of grand decor and nostalgic touches – with ornate items, beautiful home windows and sweeping curtains. 

Other gadgets embody his Royal Welsh Fusiliers cap, a framed photograph of Laurence Olivier exterior the Strand Theatre in 1958 and his Guinness World Record, which he was awarded in 2010 for turning into the longest serving actor in a serial drama.

Roache mentioned beforehand: ‘When I left the Army in my mid-20s I set my coronary heart on being an actor, however nobody was as I hadn’t been to drama faculty.

‘One day within the late 50s I noticed Laurence Olivier within the West End and took this photograph of him. I wrote to his theatre firm and he invited me backstage at a efficiency of The Entertainer.

‘He mentioned, ”Don’t hand over! I had a tricky time after I began too.” I used to be so impressed I talked my manner right into a theatre function in Clacton and by no means regarded again.’

Speaking in regards to the story behind his army cap, Roache added: ‘I used to be commissioned into the Royal Welsh Fusiliers simply after the Coronation in 1953, and was sporting this cover in Jamaica, the place I used to be stationed, when the Queen visited that 12 months.

‘She was such a fantastic younger lady, and it could be treason to say so, however as a younger man I actually fancied her! I’ve been fortunate sufficient to fulfill her, together with when Preston was made a metropolis in 2002.

‘I used to be informed that Her Majesty would ”like a photograph with you” so I spent a couple of minutes chatting to her whereas this image right here on the espresso desk was taken – she was so pure and charming.’