Cheryl Fergison felt 'so alone' at the height of her EastEnders fame: 'I cried my eyes out...'
Cheryl Fergison felt "so alone" at the height of her 'EastEnders' fame despite winning awards and earning good money.
Cheryl Fergison felt "so alone" at the height of her 'EastEnders' fame.
The 59-year-old actress - who has son Alex, 25, with ex-husband Jamshed Saddiqi and is now married to Yassim al-Jemoni - has been open about the financial difficulties she has faced since leaving her role as Heather Trott on the BBC soap in 2012, but recalled a time when she just broke down in tears despite the gloss of celebrity success.
Speaking on the 'How To Be 60 podcast', she told 'Loose Women' star Kaye Adams: "If I go to a food bank because I need to eat food because I need my family to eat because I can't afford to pay the bills, or I've been to Citizen's Advice for debit management, I'm not the only person in the world who has done that.
"If there's a celebrity - I don't know what celebrity means - if there is a person in the public eye who has been there but is embarrassed or ashamed, we've made them feel like that.
"You're only one step away from being a homeless person on the streets, you really, really are.
"The reality is, if you have a child that you can't feed or a home you can't keep, or a roof over your head, who gives a s*** what they see through their rose-tinted glasses?
"I got a Soap Award, and it was lovely, had it in my hand, went to the party - this was before I met Yas - and I came home and cried my eyes out. I went 'I've got no one to share this with, I'm so alone'. A few hours ago, everyone was [cheering] but then I went home and did that."
Cheryl - who has appeared in 'Hard Cell' opposite Catherine Tate and has is also a regular in Christmas pantomimes - admitted that her stardom on the soap as both a "blessing and a curse" because she is still associated with the character, more than a decade after she was killed-off.
"I think it was a blessing whilst I was in it, it's given me a great platform, the curse is that now that I'm out of it is that I struggle to not be seen as Heather Trott."
