THE LOVE OF HIS LIFE - ‘I'VE LOST MY SOUL MATE - MY HEART WILL NEVER FEEL THE SAME'

AS THE NATION MOURNS THE DEATH OF BARBARA WINDSOR HER BELOVED HUSBAND SCOTT MITCHELL WHO STAYED BY HER SIDE UNTIL THE END RECALLS THE ‘LOVE FUN FRIENDSHIP AND BRIGHTNESS’ SHE BROUGHT TO HIS LIFE

- SARAH MORTON 

She was the nation’s sweetheart. The kind, funny, gentle Carry On actress who swapped the film set for the Square and became one of EastEnders’ most iconic stars. But last week, after a six-year battle with dementia, Dame Barbara Windsor peacefully passed away at a London care home, at the age of 83.

And as the nation mourns the death of showbiz legend Babs – as she was affectionately known – it is her beloved husband Scott Mitchell, 57, who will have been hit hardest by her loss.

Through thick and thin, Scott – Barbara’s third hubby and the “love of her life” – never left her side, and was next to her as she died.

The couple were joined at the hip throughout their 20-year marriage, and it was Scott who broke the devastating news to the world of Babs’ untimely death on Thursday 10 December at 8.35pm.

“May you rest in peace now my precious Bar,” he wrote in an emotional statement. “I’ve lost my wife, my best friend and soul mate and my heart or life will never feel the same without you.”

And their love story truly was one for the ages. Despite controversy miring the start of their relationship thanks to their 25-year age gap, recruitment consultant Scott and Barbara remained fiercely loyal to each other throughout their lives, with Babs claiming her man was “the best thing that had ever happened to her”. Scott, in return, told OK! that his “warm, survivor” of a wife was “very easy to be in love with.”