The off-screen dramas of Coronation Street's longest-serving cast member: How ... trends now
He's the highest paid actor on the cobbled, terraced road of Coronation Street, earning a staggering £250,000 a year.
But the salary of soap star Bill Roache - famous for his beloved role as Ken Barlow in Corrie - didn't keep him immune from financial and personal tragedy as he has acted through decades of unimaginable misery.
Roache, 91, was given three months to clear his debt to HMRC yesterday morning - ordered to sell his home in Wilmslow, Cheshire, to pay a tax bill of more than £500,000. The case was adjourned for 12 weeks, until June, for the house to be sold and the remaining balance paid off.
Making his debut on Corrie's very first episode in December 1960, Roache has gone on to hold the Guinness World Record for the longest serving actor in any television soap opera.
He landed his role as Ken at the age of 28, before - unbeknownst to him - he would be hit by the death of two daughters, a fling with a co-star that would lead to the breakdown of his marriage, and financial woes to last more than three decades.
Not unlike his character Ken, who developed a reputation as a ladies' man, Roach admitted he cheated on his first wife - TV actress Anna Cropper - because of his huge sex drive.
Roache claimed to have bedded more than 1,000 women and blamed the breakdown of his first marriage on his inability to stop cheating.
Bill Roache, 91, (pictured) has been dealing with financial woes for more than 30 years, despite being the most well paid actor on Coronation Street
Roache has been ordered to sell his home (pictured) in Wilmslow, Cheshire, to pay a hefty tax bill
Roache made his debut on the show's very first episode in December 1960 (pictured on soap with Anne Reid in 1963)
Roache holds the Guinness World Record for the longest serving actor in a television soap opera
Roache admitted to a fling with fellow Coronation Street star Pat Phoenix (left) - who played Elsie Tanner from 1960 to 1984 - claiming the affair was a 'one-off'
Despite his longstanding success on the show, Roache's financial downfall began in 1991, when he won a libel action after The Sun branded him 'boring'
Queen Elizabeth II meets actors William Roache, Barbara Knox, Sue Nicholls and Helen Worth during a visit to the set Coronation Street
Roache faces bankruptcy for a second time and faces losing his house (pictured)
The star admitted to a fling with fellow Coronation Street star Patsy Phoenix - who played Elsie Tanner from 1960 to 1984 - claiming the affair was a 'one-off' after Phoenix invited the star back to her flat. 'She invited me round [...] and we had a few drinks, then one thing led to another,' said Roache. Phoenix died of lung cancer in 1986, having smoked 60 cigarettes a day.
During his second marriage to his late wife Sarah, who he married in 1978, Roache had many children, living to see both his spouse and two daughters tragically die.
His baby Edwina died from pneumonia aged 18 months in 1983, before his daughter Vanya passed away at the age of 50 in 2018 after battling liver failure.
In an interview at the time, Roache revealed he had devastatingly got involved in a car crash while rushing to see Vanya in hospital, meaning he missed his final chance to see his child before her death. Roache's second wife Sarah died of natural causes in 2009.
The star was even arrested at his Cheshire home in 2013 before being found not guilty of two counts of rape and four counts of incident assault in 2014.
At the time, past and present cast members claimed Roache had been the victim of a cruel 'celebrity witchhunt' - rushing to celebrate his acquittal and slamming the 'wasteful' and 'nonsense' decision to prosecute him.
Despite his longstanding success on Coronation Street,
