People were following me home in cars, singing outside my window at my flat. I couldn't go to pubs or supermarkets or walk down the street. It was bizarre, but that was my life.
I came from nothing.
When I walked away from my role as Angie in 'Eastenders' all those years ago, it was a huge risk, but I always had this great desire to do so many things.
I was always slightly afraid of marriage because I didn't like the idea of being tied down. Even when I met Brian, when I was in my mid-thirties, I didn't actually see it on the cards for us. He was a huge rock star, and our lives were very different.
It's important to me to keep testing myself in life so that I don't get pigeonholed.
I think if you make a decision to leave a job, a home, a relationship, then you've usually got a pretty major reason to do so, and you should probably stick with that.
You learn to accept losing someone, but you never get over it.
I was invited to see Queen at Wembley - I think it was the last tour they did, and then afterwards, they had a huge party, which I was invited to - it was all thanks to EastEnders.
Whether the public like me or not, I am who I am.
I've got a great life - my friends, my marriage, my career, my health - and I'm on 'Strictly,' and I'm learning to dance.
Once, I was followed by a car when I was driving. Every time I sped up, the car sped up, and when I slowed down, it slowed down. Eventually, I stopped, got out and screamed, 'What do you want?' He said, 'I just wanted to give you some flowers because I'm such a fan.' I felt awful. He was just being kind.
I first got engaged when I was 19, but I just knew there was more of life out there for me. I called it off six weeks before the wedding. I felt terribly guilty because he was such a nice boy, and I was in love with him. But it was the wrong time.
I love to chit-chat and used to be the first to arrive at a party and the last to leave.
I didn't have children because I was passionate about having my career.
I've been working in radio on and off for most of my career. There's a restfulness about it. It's more focused on the voice, so you don't have to worry about extraneous things like sound effects, as there's someone there to look after that.
Radio means you can play parts that aren't based on your looks or your age. It's a lot of fun. You can do tremendous things - play more diverse characters - that you wouldn't get to do in theatre or TV.
'Silver Street' was a very happy time for me.
Even people who aren't pleasant to deal with - it's often because they're unhappy, and something's still not resolved for them.
I went into acting because I wanted to be seen being someone else, not me!
I can do glamour, but I can also play something like I did in the play 'Wild Justice,' where I was demented with grief and anger, and there was snot coming out of my nose, and my clothes were all over the place.
