Carry On Camping: Barbara Windsor stars in classic trailer
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Barbara Windsor died in December 2020 aged 83 following a battle with Alzheimer’s Disease, with her husband Scott Mitchell, 59, by her side. The widower has now shared personal insight into their relationship in his memoir as he insists although they didn’t have an open relationship he was allowed to “enjoy himself”.
Ours was not an open relationship!
Scott Mitchell
In extracts from his new book, By Your Side: My Life Loving Barbara Windsor, Scott made bombshell revelations about the couple’s marriage.
Shared with The Sun, Scott admitted his relationship was not a “closed book”, with the national treasure not wanting her husband to “stop living his life to the full”.
Scott wrote: “Ours was not an open relationship, but it wasn’t a closed book either.
“She had always said sex was sex and love was love, and she wasn’t one for double standards, so she kept her reservations to herself and never asked me directly.”
He added that Barbara “didn’t want to stop him living his life to the full, as she had” however their arrangement “did start to get a bit mixed up”.
When the EastEnders legend had to stop drinking she did not want her husband to miss out, so Scott claimed when she was dropped home she would ask him to go back out and “enjoy himself”.
He added: “It wasn’t to hook up with women, though we both had a similar attitude towards sex, but to score some coke.”
Barbara herself previously discussed her husband’s cocaine addiction in her own memoir All Of Me: My Extraordinary Life, where she blamed herself for the severity of his addiction.
She wrote: “I think I could have stopped Scott’s spiral of self-destruction had it not been for another craving that transformed him from the wonderful guy I loved into a sad, pathetic creature I hardly recognised.
“I would look at him and think: I’ve done nothing wrong and yet I’ve managed to ruin this man’s life.
“Scott would see the tears in my eyes and promise to go on the wagon. But it never lasted for more than three or four days and then he would be off on another bender.”
Eventually, Scott received treatment for his addiction with the guidance of Elton John’s manager John Reid and treatment from therapist Beechy Colclough.
Barbara was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s Disease in 2014 but kept her illness out of the public eye until 2018.
Alzheimer’s disease is a progressive, degenerative disease of the brain, in which the build-up of abnormal proteins causes nerve cells to die.
After her death, Scott told PA: “Her passing was from Alzheimer’s/dementia and Barbara eventually died peacefully and I spent the last seven days by her side.
“Myself, her family and friends will remember Barbara with love, a smile and affection for the many years of her love, fun, friendship and brightness she brought to all our lives and the entertainment she gave to so many thousands of others during her career.
“Barbara’s final weeks were typical of how she lived her life. Full of humour, drama and a fighting spirit until the end.”
Barbara played Peggy Mitchell in EastEnders for more than 20 years and is known as one of the main faces of Albert Square.
The late actress also appeared in a host of Carry On movies between 1964 and 1974, including Carry On Spying, Carry On Doctor and Carry On Camping.
Barbara’s final TV role was starring in her own biopic, which chronicled her humble beginnings in Shoreditch up to 1993, with Jaime Winstone and Samantha Spiro playing the actress through the years.
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