‘People Are Stunned When They Find Out My Husband's Age'

After 40 years of heartbreak on the nation’s favourite soap, Coronation Street actress Sue Nicholls has a very different love life to her counterpart Audrey Roberts…

- Katherine Hassell

Sue Nicholls has played Audrey Roberts on Coronation Street since 1979. In the mid-80s, viewers saw her fall in love with and marry grocer Alf Roberts, then lose him suddenly in 1999, after a stroke.

Aside from a more recent short romance with Lewis Archer (played by Nigel Havers) – who ended up conning her and her daughter Gail Platt out of thousands – she’s been mainly single since Alf’s death. However, in reality, Sue has been married to another soap icon, Mark Eden, since 1993.

Mark played one of Corrie’s best baddies, Alan Bradley, who was famously hit by a Blackpool tram in 1989, chasing his ex, Rita.

‘He’s 90 now. People are stunned when they find out,’ Sue tells us. ‘He still looks very young. His mother lived to be 100. It’s in the genes.’ 

But does she want Audrey to find love, too? Not necessarily! 

‘I’ll tell you a secret,’ she confides. ‘I know Corrie and many of the other TV shows long to pair people off, because people at home like to see nice things happen to characters. But it doesn’t necessarily mean women of 70-plus, because they’ve lost their partners, need to pal up with anybody. I have a bee in my bonnet about that.