Justin Mildwater, the first husband of TV presenter and actress Nadia Sawalha, committed suicide on December 25, 1997. They had been married for five years but had divorced a few months before, and the breakup was too much for Justin to bear. After he died in 1997, Nadia struggled to cope with her loss and subsequently revealed, “There was a lot of drink and a lot of late nights.”
Nadia met her husband through her sister Julia’s ex-lover, actor Dexter Fletcher. “As soon as I saw him, I said, ‘Yes, please,’” she stated in one interview. “He was stunning.” They got married in a Bedouin-style wedding. In the Jordanian hamlet of Madaba
Nadia’s workload increased dramatically, and the constraints of TV popularity caused a rift in their marriage, resulting in her leaving. Nadia, who played Albert Square man-eater Annie Palmer at the time, had left her husband Justin Mildwater around four weeks before his suicide, blaming the excessive hours she worked on the successful show.
Justin, who was only 31 at the time, was unable to cope with the break-up.
The tragedy was found after Justin’s family became concerned after not hearing from him over the holidays. On Boxing Day 1997, his brother Lucien went to Justin’s house and discovered the body after breaking in.