Anne Kirkbride's Husband Responds To 'Coronation Street' Star Bill Roache's Comments

Anne Kirkbride’s husband has responded to comments made in the press by her former ‘Coronation Street’ co-star Bill Roache about her health problems.

Bill appeared on screen with Anne as her soap husband, Ken Barlow, until her death last year, and faced a backlash from ‘Corrie’ fans on Thursday, over a recent interview where he spoke openly about her private health battles, describing her as “depressed” and “an alcoholic”.

The late soap actress’s husband, David Beckett, has now responded to the claims, simply telling The Mirror: “Whilst Anne would describe herself as an 'alcoholic', she had not touched a drop of alcohol in 30 years.”

An ITV spokesperson also refused to comment on Bill’s comments about his late screen wife, adding: “We never discuss health matters relating to an employee.”

Bill raised eyebrows among ‘Corrie’ fans on Friday, when he said: “What happened to Anne was....she was was an alcoholic. She was on drugs for depression. She had been an alcoholic but she was off the drink.

“She was on anti-depressant drugs all her life and then she just started crying a lot and I spent half my life sort of comforting her and getting her back on track.

“That got a bit worse and we were holding up scenes because she was being weepy and wailing.

“The management gave her three months out to get herself sorted out which is what we thought would happen and she would come back and be perfectly OK.

“And then they rang me to say she has a stroke and was paralysed down the left side and they had taken her in for a scan and in the scan they found her right lung full of cancer and she had a brain tumour."

‘Corrie’ fans were devastated when Anne died in January of last year, at the age of 60, following a private battle with breast cancer.