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Scott Brand, the husband of Coronation Street star Julie Goodyear MBE, has revealed that his wife is suffering from dementia.
Scott said: “My darling wife and I have had to come to terms with this heart-breaking diagnosis.
“Unfortunately, Julie has been suffering forgetfulness for some time and we have been seeking medical advice and assistance, but we now know that there is no hope of a reversal in the situation – and that her condition will get progressively, and perhaps speedily, worse.
“We have taken the decision to publicly announce the diagnosis as Julie still loves visiting friends and eating out. Inevitably she is recognised, and fans love to meet her – and she them – but she can get confused particularly if she is tired. I hope people will understand.”
Julie remains a patron of Willow Wood Hospice in Greater Manchester.
Julie remains a patron of Willow Wood Hospice in Greater Manchester.
The 81-year-old had 22 million viewers tune in when she departed Coronation Street in 1995, before returning to the cobbles seven years later.
However, Julie admitted she regretted returning to Coronation Street for an ill-fated 17 day stint.
The star quit just a couple of weeks after her much-hyped return, explaining that it was all down to the major changes in shooting schedules.
Julie has spoken out on Piers Morgan’s Life Stories in 2013 about her life as Corrie’s Bet Lynch, a role that she began playing in 1966.
The actress made her return to the soap in 2002, in what was intended to be a permanent comeback.
A little over a fortnight later though and Julie quit after struggling with the workload.
She claimed she had not been told about how the demands of filming had changed since she left the Street seven years earlier.
“I was asked to go back as a favour. So, yes, I do regret going back,” Julie revealed.
“What somebody had omitted to tell me, in the transition period, were all the changes that had happened.”
“You know, all the older members of the cast that had been there, since it had gone through from three to five episodes, had been eased gently into it, and all the new kids coming in weren’t used to working any other way.”
The actress explains that during her seven-year break the shooting schedule had changed dramatically.
“But when I walked in, it was like being on a conveyor belt. We’d always had rehearsal. We’d always had make-up and costume and everything.
“I had about 27 Rovers scenes and we started at the end, ‘Sorry, the end?’ I was used to beginning at the beginning and building up.”
Despite lasting just 17 days, Julie insists that she made the right decision, and feels no sense of failure: “I thought, ‘It’s time I put my health, for the first time, first’.”
Julie who was last seen on TV screens for the 2012 series of Celebrity Big Brother, also spoke about her fourth husband Scott Brand, whom she married in 2007.
They first met in 1996 when he delivered plaster to a house she was renovating, with the soap star admitting that she only agreed to walk down the aisle again after Scott, 45, proposed to her every day for 11 years.
“I might renew his contract. He’s been the best of a bad bunch, he really has,” she said.
Asked if she was happily married, she responded: “Very.”
