CORONATION Street legend Wendi Peters has separated from her hubby of 20 years.
The soap favourite, who played bigmouth Cilla Battersby-Brown on the cobbles, has moved out of her home with actor-turned-sports-masseuse hubby Kenny Linden and is living alone in Hertfordshire.
Wendi Peters has separated from her husband Kenny Linden after 20 years
The soap star played Cilla Battersby-Brown on the cobbles
An insider close to Wendi, who is currently starring in BBC’s Doctors, tells me: “Wendi and Kenny were together for a long time and had a mostly happy marriage but grew apart.
“Wendi is focusing on her new role in Doctors and looking ahead to the future.”
The couple’s grown up actress daughter Gracie is living with Kenny. They went through seven rounds of IVF to have her.
Kenny was recently registered as blind as he has a rare hereditary condition called PXE (pseudoxanthoma elasticum), which affects only around 1,500 people in the UK.
Speaking in 2014 Wendi said: “We had been together six months when we visited my parents and Kenny said he wasn’t feeling well,” says Wendi.
“Then he had a major stomach haemorrhage and vomited blood all over their downstairs loo.
“He frightened us all and we took him to hospital where doctors gave him a blood transfusion and stopped the blood loss.
“”Kenny was always positive,” says Wendi.
“We knew he might lose his sight, which was awful but he was determined to continue with his career.”
When Gracie was three, she was sitting on Kenny’s knee when she reached up and accidentally poked part of a crisp into his left eye. He said: “The next day I still felt I had something in my eye.
“I went to the doctor and was referred to an eye specialist, who said the eye was bleeding and that I could be losing my central vision.”
At Moorfields Eye Hospital in London, Kenny had a treatment called photodynamic therapy, where lasers are used to seal up the leaking blood vessels at the back of the eye.
But three months later, the vision in Kenny’s other eye began to fade, too.
He said: “Gradually, the vision in both eyes has got worse. I went for regular checkups, but by the time Gracie was eight, I was registered sight impaired.
“I still have my peripheral vision, but I can’t read for pleasure or drive and I’ve had to give up my career and retrain as a sports masseuse.
“I can’t recognise faces easily – I can see them only if I don’t look directly at them, but in general I can function pretty well.
“I do feel depressed sometimes, but if anything the condition has made me and Wendi stronger.”
The soap star has moved out of her home with Kenny and is said to be focusing on her new BBC role
