Coronation Street icon William Roache’s love life – sudden deaths to wild affairs
As beloved soap actor William Roache celebrates his 92nd birthday with his friends and family, Daily Star has taken a deep dive inside his love life away from the small screen
William Roache has been a household name as Coronation Street favourite Ken Barlow for more than six decades.
Starring in the ITV soap since its conception in the 1960s, the actor has become a pillar of the programme and boasts the Guinness World Record as the longest-serving television star in a continuous role.
During his time on the show, he has appeared on the famous cobbles with a series of gruelling storylines. Despite the coronavirus pandemic putting restrictions in place for older actors over the past few years, the TV star continues to delight viewers on the show.
As the actor celebrates his 92nd birthday, Daily Star has taken a deep dive inside his life away from the small screen. And it’s fair to say his love life has been a lot less dramatic than Ken’s over the years.
The beloved actor has only ever been married twice in his life, much less than his alter-ego on the ITV cobbles. It was in 1961 that Bill tied the knot for the first time with stage and screen actress Anna Cropper.
The pair were married for several years before they decided to separate back in 1974. Anna’s career ran for more than three decades, with her first role portraying Chrysalis in the TV sitcom The Insect Play in 1960.
Reportedly, her final role featured in an episode of Midsomer Murders titled Death’s Shadow before her death eight years later in 2007. At the age of 68, the star died of a heart attack in West Sussex.
For 13 years, the pair were happily married and welcomed two children together, a son called Linus Roache and a daughter named Vanya Roache. In an interview in 2010, the soap star opened up about the breakdown of his marriage, which he claimed was his fault.
Speaking candidly three years after Anna’s death, Bill admitted he cheated on the mother of his children by sleeping with loyal fans of the show. He confessed: “Temptation is lurking around the corner because so much is on offer to you. It was nobody else’s fault.
“No one forced me to do what I did, and I still regret the way I behaved and ultimately what it did to my marriage.” In another interview with News of the World, he revealed how he wasn’t strong enough to “resist affairs”.
The doting dad went on: “I wasn’t strong enough to resist the opportunities. I succumbed to my weaknesses and because of this indulged in things like affairs which I am certainly not proud of.”
Although Anna never spoke about her marriage to Bill, it wasn’t too long after the couple’s split that the soap legend tied the knot again. This time he said “I do” to Sara McEwan Mottram four years later in 1978.
The couple were married until she unexpectedly passed away back in 2009. The happy couple welcomed three more children together: Verity, James and Edwina. His late wife’s death hit the actor particularly hard due to the unexpected nature of her passing.
The star passed away with no warning at the age of 58 years old. Recalling Sara’s passing, Bill explained: “Of course, it was unthinkable that Sara would die first. Sara was going to live to a strong old age.
“In fact, because she was 17-and-a-half years younger than me, I’d been beginning to get worried about providing for her when I was gone. I’d started to move my pensions over to her.
“We would even joke that she would become bad-tempered having to push me around in a wheelchair. There are moments when I think Sara will walk into the room. I think that if I ring her mobile, she will answer.”
He continued in an interview with The Daily Mail: “I can count on the fingers of one hand the number of days we spent apart. I would always drive home after engagements even if I didn’t get back until the early hours. She was always there.”
