SOAP characters have some of the most rollercoaster lives on TV – but sometimes the actors who play them have dramatic off-screen dramas of their own.
Coronation Street legend William Roache has just been given three months to settle an eye-watering six-figure tax debt, after investing in a £500million Cayman Islands tax avoidance scheme.
Bill – who has played Ken Barlow on the ITV soap since it began in 1960 – is waiting to sell his property to pay back an undisclosed amount that has been reduced from the original £546,348.53.
But he could be declared bankrupt if the bill is not settled by June.
The soap stalwart has been plagued by personal traumas over the years – including the tragic loss of two daughters. Edwina died of pneumonia aged just 18 months in 1984, and Vanya passed away from liver failure in 2018, aged 50.
Here we look at the soap stars whose off-screen lives have seen as much drama as their character’s.
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Sandy Ratcliff
Sandy Ratcliff was one of the original cast members of EastEnders as Sue Osman – a character who endured a child’s cot death before being sectioned.
She was written out of the show in 1989 due to a heroin addiction that ended her acting career.
Then in 1991, she got caught up in a heinous double murder trial, when she claimed she and her ex Michael Shorey were having sex at the time he was accused of strangling two young women in the basement they shared in North London.
Her story was shot down and Shorey was jailed for life.
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Sandy died of cancer in 2019 aged 70, having suffered three strokes since 2013.
A pal said: “She was still smoking 20 a day and had only just replaced her whisky with tea.”
Craig Fitzpatrick
In 2020, former Waterloo Road actor Craig Fitzpatrick was jailed for 18 months after threatening a family with an 18-inch machete.
The Oldham actor, who starred as Lewis Seddon in the BBC drama, smashed windows at the victims’ property with the blade while high on drugs and drink after a “family dispute”.
The female victim said the family feared for their lives after he warned they would be “dead” if he saw them.
The court heard he was “highly intoxicated and under the influence of drugs” during the incident on August 27 that year.
Mark Jordon
Mark Jordon played Emmerdale’s Daz Spencer from 2014, but left in 2019 when he was arrested on suspicion of biting and threatening a pensioner at a pub garden.
He was eventually found not guilty of affray, unlawful wounding and assault by beating.
However, he revealed he was forced to spend his and his now-wife Laura Norton’s five-figure savings on lawyers to prove his innocence as he did not qualify for legal aid.
Laura, who also stars in Emmerdale as Kerry Wyatt, and Mark recently revealed their two children have a rare genetic condition called Usher Syndrome, which affects hearing and sight.
The couple are making a documentary about their children’s illness.
Elaine Lordan
Elaine Lordan joined EastEnders as Lynne Slater in 2000.
However she was convicted of drink-driving and banned for a year after downing five vodkas in 2004, and subsequently axed from the soap.
A source said at the time: “It was decided to make the changes after she had a few problems with drinking. It has been done to help her rather than to punish her.”
Life got worse for Elaine after she left the show. In 2005 her mum took her own life, aged 62.
Nine months later she tragically lost her one-year-old son James. He suffered from breathing difficulties caused by a condition called
diaphragmatic hernia — and died three days after Elaine married his dad, ex-BBC technician Peter Manuel.
She fell pregnant again in 2007, but sadly miscarried shortly after. A year later her dad passed away.
Elaine went off the radar for a long time after, but in 2018 she was spotted appearing to be downing mini bottles of wine in the street before midday.
She was last seen in 2020 looking much healthier as she went for a jog with her husband.
Joseph Shade
One of the many actors to have played Ian Beale’s son Peter over the years, Joseph Shade starred in EastEnders from 1998 to 2004.
In 2017 he was arrested for sexual assaults on three girls between the ages of 14 and 17.
Shade admitted five counts of causing or inciting a child under 18 to engage in sexual activity while in a position of trust, and one count of sexual activity with a child.
The remaining five counts were ordered to lie on file.
The court heard that Shade had a troubled childhood and had committed the offences while working as a youth worker, between 2012 and 2015, which brought him into contact with vulnerable teenagers.
Shade, then 24, was handed an 18-month sentence suspended for 24 months, a sexual harm prevention order for five years and 150 hours of unpaid work.
He now lives with his girlfriend in Nottingham.
Leanne Lakey
Leanne Lakey played one of the Slater sisters, Belinda, on EastEnders from 2001 to 2003.
In 2017 she was arrested at Gatwick Airport when three kilos of cocaine – with a street value of around £150,000 – were found hidden in the bottom of a suitcase.
After her co-accused Dean Shanahan pleaded guilty to one count of importing cocaine, no evidence was offered against her.
Leanne eventually walked free, and was found not guilty.
Jody Latham
Jody Latham played Whitney Dean’s pimp Rob Grayson on EastEnders in 2011.
The same year he was arrested for growing cannabis at his girlfriend’s house in Stackstead, Lancashire.
Police seized 24 plants with a possible street value of £9,000.
The actor, 39, wept as the judge told him he would be spared jail, with a 12-month sentence suspended for two years.
In 2016 he was also accused of harassing a contestant on The Apprentice, but was later cleared.
He’s now a multi-millionaire with an £18m cosmetic empire, and recently showed off his £200,000 Lamborghini.
Chris Hargreaves
Actor Chris Hargreaves played drug dealer and gangster Carl Foster in Coronation Street in the 1990s.
In 1998, the character caused the death of popular street resident Des Barnes, played by Philip Middlemiss, who was attacked by a group of thugs after coming to the rescue of stepson Tony.
After leaving the soap Hargreaves became a real life drug dealer; in 2012 he was arrested after police found 3kg of high-grade cannabis during a raid on his family home in Salford.
They also found £38,000 of ‘dirty money’ stuffed into Tesco carrier bags, shoe boxes and drawers at the house, which Hargreaves, then 48, shared with ex-wife Samantha and their five children.
He was jailed for four and a half years, and ordered to pay back £60,000.
Jessie Wallace
EastEnders’ Kat Slater is one of the mouthiest characters in Soapland, and there have been times when art imitates life for actress Jessie Wallace.
In 2022 the star was slapped with a “clear warning” from the BBC soap after she was arrested at a nightclub for telling a cop: “F*** off you fat c***”.
5ft 1in Jessie also kneed the officer in the goolies during “five minutes of carnage,” leaving him doubled up in pain before she was bundled into a police van. She was later released without charge.
In 2003 Jessie was suspended from EastEnders for two months due to excessive drinking and partying.
Then in 2018, Jessie was reportedly forced to leave the British Soap Awards early after drinking too much beforehand.
In 2020 she was once again handed a two-month suspension from EastEnders after reportedly turning up on set to film the show’s 35th anniversary special drunk.
Stephanie Davis
In 2015 Stephanie Davis was warned by Hollyoaks bosses to cut down on her drinking while playing Sinead O’Connor on the show.
But after one particularly wild night which saw her turn up for work still drunk the next day, she was fired.
Scriptwriters had to quickly amend her storyline so Sinead could be written out.
Steph was invited back to Hollyoaks again in 2018 and she stayed for a year before quitting the show “to be happy”.
She was also involved in a Celebrity Big Brother cheating scandal in 2016 where she openly did the dirty on boyfriend Sam Reece with Jeremy O’Connell – with whom she ended up having son Caben-Albi, now five.
The pair later split, with Jeremy found guilty in August 2017 of battering Steph in a cocaine-fuelled row.
Steph is now sober and living a more settled life with Caben and Joe McKalroy, who she’s rumoured to be engaged to.
She was most recently seen in a new role on Coronation Street.
Iain Robertson
At the end of last year Iain Robertson – who plays troubled bad boy Stevie O’Hara in the Scottish soap River City – was pulled off screen and arrested for domestic abuse.
Police sent a report to prosecutors who will decide whether the Glasgow-born actor will face the allegations in court, and his future on the soap is still uncertain.
It’s understood Iain’s co-stars have been told by bosses he won’t be on the show until the matter is resolved.
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A source told The Scottish Sun: “It’s been a real shock for everyone. One minute Iain was on set as usual and the next he wasn’t.
“Producers are trying to keep the show going as usual but it’s difficult when one of the biggest stars is pulled like this. It’s also given the scriptwriters a bit of a headache.”
