Loose Women's Sherrie Hewson is single, sober and sanguine after years of struggle. Roz Laws talks to a star happy to keep life simple these days.

She’s had a more turbulent life than most, going through bankruptcy, an unhappy marriage and battles with alcohol and anorexia.

Now Sherrie Hewson has had enough. She reveals she’s given up on men and is resigned to staying single, devoting all her time to her grandchildren.

The actress – star of Coronation Street, Benidorm and Loose Women – insists: “The only man in my life is five-year-old Oliver.”

Sherrie, who shot to fame as Reg Holdsworth’s wife Maureen in Corrie, has been separated from club doorman Ken Boyd since 2001 and divorced for a year.

“I know you should never say never, and it’s possible that someone could walk into my life, but I really can’t imagine that happening,” says the 61-year-old, who briefly dated Steve McQueen when she was a drama student and was engaged to Robert Lindsay.

“I think it’s too late. I’ve got used to being on my own now and it doesn’t worry me.

“It would be quite nice to have someone to go home to, to moan at and ask advice from. Someone to talk things through with – that’s what I miss the most, but it would be very hard to share my house with anyone now.

“And can I be bothered to meet someone? My attempts at dating have not been at all successful. I went out for dinner with this man and said I’d like some red wine. He said ‘A glass? I’m driving, I can only have one glass’.

“He reluctantly forked out for a bottle, poured me a glass and then put the cork back in. How dare he tell me how many glasses of wine I can have! So I had three glasses, which made me really ill, but I was determined that this man wouldn’t dictate to me.

“I was really miffed about that. I just don’t think I’m in the right frame of mine to have a relationship – I think I’ve forgotten how!

“I just want to devote all my time to my grandchildren, Oliver and Molly, who’s 15 months. They are my whole life.”

Sherrie was born in Nottingham and is returning to the Midlands to star in pantomime this year – she’s villainous Lady Temple-Savage in Jack and the Beanstalk at the Grand Theatre, Wolverhampton, alongside Keith Harris and Orville.

The character is named after her Benidorm character of Spanish hotel manager Joyce Temple-Savage.

“I love playing baddies, as you can be so horrible to the children.

“I’m looking forward to having a number with some beautiful boy dancers, though I’m not sure if I will be singing properly. We’ll probably have an Eartha Kitt-type number where I talk rather than sing, so I’m not scared about hitting the notes.

“I used to sing but I lost my nerve. Then I had a go at karaoke while filming Benidorm. I sang Wannabe by the Spice Girls but the people in the bar thought it was just dreadful – I was met with a stunned silence!” Sherrie revealed that a new series of Benidorm is on its way and another one will be filmed next year. “I do love making that series and long may it last, although it is hard work,” she says. “We start at 5am and film until 7pm to make the most of the sun.

“We are spray-tanned every two days. By the time we end, it’s all mottled and I look like I’ve got some dreadful disease.”

Sherrie attributes her success in Benidorm, and especially her decade as a panellist on Loose Women, in helping to put her life back together.

When her marriage failed and she was left bankrupt, she began to lose her hair through stress and had a drink problem and an eating disorder.

“I lost my beautiful house and everything I had,” Sherrie remembers. “I had to start again, at 51 – it was so humiliating, to be back to where you were at 21.

“Fortunately I had Loose Women for therapy and support. I don’t know what would have happened without that. The bankruptcy came as a shock. It wasn’t necessarily my fault, but I took it on board and worked through it. The difference now is that I don’t have somebody else in my life who is draining me. I have managed to bounce back.

“Bankruptcy teaches you a massive lesson. You have to live just on cash, with no credit cards or cheque books. It’s a leveller and I am now more careful with money.

“I don’t go on holidays, have a posh car or buy designer clothes. My only indulgence now are my grandchildren. Buying clothes for Molly is a bit of an obsession of mine, I can’t resist those cute little outfits!” Sherrie has written two books, her autobiography and the crime fiction novel The Tannery, published after she won the BBC reality show Murder Most Famous.

Now she’d like to have another go at fiction.

“The book I wrote was 80,000 words, but I hadn’t realised it was going to be published as a ‘Quick Read’ for those who can’t read very well. It was cut down to 20,000 words, with small paragraphs and simple words with no more than two syllables.

“It took the heat and strength out of the story, which was a graphic thriller about a girl who murders her mother. It became a sweet little story, not the dark and tragic thing I wrote.

“I was also put off writing a bit by my autobiography experience. My publisher insisted I had a ghost writer, but what they came up with wasn’t my voice at all. I ended up changing almost all of it to what I wanted to say.

“I’d like to have another go at writing. I’m always looking for the next challenge and to reinvent myself. I need something to really have a go at, whether it’s writing, painting a picture or learning to play the piano.

“I always know when it’s time for a change and one is due now. To what, who knows? I can’t wait to find out!”

* Jack and the Beanstalk is at Wolverhampton’s Grand Theatre from December 8 to January 20. For tickets ring 01902 429212 or go to www.grandtheatre.co.uk