Bill Roache's girlfriend Emma lays down the law

Bill Roache's girlfriend Emma lays down the law
Bill Roache's girlfriend Emma lays down the law (Image credit: PA)

Bill Roache's girlfriend has warned him not to return to his womanising ways after the revelations about his love life. Emma Jesson, who is 37 years younger than the Coronation Street veteran, said they were 'kindred spirits'. She told Hello! magazine: "He did sleep with a lot of girls, but that was back in the 1960s. "If he was like that now, I wouldn't be with him. And if he did resort to his old behaviour, I'd cut it off." The 79-year-old actor, who has played strait-laced Ken Barlow in the show for more than half a century, recently told Piers Morgan he had slept with hundreds of women and said his wild behaviour led fellow stars to dub him Cock Roache. But Emma said the couple's life now was a far cry from those days, saying: "Our lives are so busy that relaxing at home is our ultimate treat. While Bill learns his lines or listens to the cricket, I read a book or prepare a meal. We feel completely at ease with each other. He doesn't look or behave like an 80-year-old. To me, he's still young." Bill said his children's approval of Emma was essential. He said: "I would do nothing, nothing that would ever harm or upset my children. "Emma understood all that."

Patrick McLennan

Patrick McLennan is a London-based journalist and documentary maker who has worked as a writer, sub-editor, digital editor and TV producer in the UK and New Zealand. His CV includes spells as a news producer at the BBC and TVNZ, as well as web editor for Time Inc UK. He has produced TV news and entertainment features on personalities as diverse as Nick Cave, Tom Hardy, Clive James, Jodie Marsh and Kevin Bacon and he co-produced and directed The Ponds, which has screened in UK cinemas, BBC Four and is currently available on Netflix. 


An entertainment writer with a diverse taste in TV and film, he lists Seinfeld, The Sopranos, The Chase, The Thick of It and Detectorists among his favourite shows, but steers well clear of most sci-fi.