Corrie’s Evelyn star Dame Maureen Lipman’s life from heartache to royal connection
Maureen Lipman has become an iconic figure in Coronation Street since joining the soap in 2018 as Evelyn Plummer. The 76-year-old actress has won the hearts of many fans and while she is expected to take a temporary break from the show, landing the lead role in the play Rose set to run in London's West End for a month starting in May, she signed an extension on her contract last year for the soap. But what about her life away from the cobbles?
Maureen’s late husband Jack Rosenthal, who she married in 1974, actually penned over 130 episodes of Coronation Street during the early days of the ITV soap and she said Evelyn is the sort of character her late husband would have created.
She said: "She’s a proper battleaxe, and she’s not really redeemed."
Jack sadly died in 2004, aged 72, of multiple myeloma, a form of cancer. After the death of her first husband Jack, Maureen Lipman found love again with computer expert Guido Castro in 2008.
Sadly, Guido also passed away in 2021 after contracting COVID-19 while in a care home and battling Parkinson's disease. The actress was left heartbroken by his death, but expressed gratitude for having had two wonderful men in her life.
Maureen reflected on Guido's passing, telling theDaily Mailthat she was unsure when he had contracted the disease, but she had urged him to "let go." She said that for once in his life, Guido actually did what she told him.
She also shared: "I should have been wiser about Guido and not let that happen in the way it did. To my dying day I’ll be saying that I shouldn’t have carried on working when Guido was ill… Was I a good wife? No, because I was always putting my work first.”
Maureen has been recognized for her outstanding contribution to charity, entertainment, and the arts twice in her life. She was appointed as a CBE in the New Year's Honours list of 1999, and as a Dame in the Queen's Birthday Honours list of 2020. In a special ceremony held at Windsor Castle on October 28, 2021, she was presented with her Damehood by King Charles, who was then the Prince of Wales.
Maureen had also met the late Queen on several occasions, most recently during her visit to the Coronation Street set in 2021.
Discussing their interaction on Good Morning Britain, Maureen said: "She was such a geezer, I can’t tell you!
"We were all in love with her, even the most hardened, you know, the guys in the green room saying, 'I'm not putting a jacket on'.
"Because out she popped from her plum-coloured car and talked to everybody, 'oh you're sound, are you? So you're not in the…' and she asked me about my dog."
However, following the death of the Queen on September 8, the soap star revealed she had actually had a "premonition" that the news was coming.
During a special BBC broadcast she told Kirsty Young: "I had a premonition, Kirsty, I actually texted a friend in Corrie and said 'I think the Queen is going to die'.
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