William Patrick Roache OBE is an English actor. He is best known for playing Ken Barlow in the ITV soap opera Coronation Street since it was first broadcast on 9 December 1960. He is listed in the Guinness World Records as the longest-serving television star in a continuous role.
On 13 April 2012, Piers Morgan interviewed Roache for his ITV series Piers Morgan’s Life Stories. On 26 September 2012, Roache was featured in the BBC series Who Do You Think You Are? researching his family history. He is currently Coronation Street‘s longest-serving actor, having been in the cast from the first episode.
In 2018, the book Life and Soul: How to Live a Long and Healthy Life was released, in which Roache shares his personal philosophy and life experiences.
Roache is currently the world’s longest-serving television actor in a continuous role (as of March 2018) after the 2010 cancellation of the American soap opera As the World Turns, in which Don Hastings had played Bob Hughes since October 1960 without a break.
William Roache’s Wife: Who Is William Roache Married To?
His eldest son, by his first wife Anna Cropper (1938–2007), is actor Linus Roache (born 1964). The couple also had a daughter named Vanya (1967–2018). Roache and Cropper were married from 1961 until divorcing in 1974.
Roache married his second wife, Sara McEwan Mottram, in 1978. She died suddenly on 7 February 2009 at their home, at the age of 58. With Sara, he had a daughter named Verity (born 1981) and a younger son, actor James Roache (christened William; born 1985). A second daughter, Edwina, died at the age of 18 months on 16 November 1984. Roache dated weather reporter Emma Jesson from 2010 to 2012.