AS SOAP LEGEND
RITUALS PSYCHIC PAST LIFE SECT TRAGEDY
AS Coronation Street stalwart Ken Barlow, Bill Roache has been a steady fixture on the cobbles for 58 years – outlasting every other star of the soap.
And Bill, 85, has promised fans he won’t be leaving any time soon, as he feels like he’s getting younger. He said this week: “A few years ago, I made the decision that I was actually getting younger. It’s a belief system, really. The body was designed to go on forever.”
His impossibly positive outlook isn’t the result of new diet or exercise regime, but one of the beliefs of his beloved Pure Love Movement, an organisation who believe the power of love can eradicate war and famine, and cure illnesses.
Claiming that he is immune to ageing isn’t the soap star’s only unusual belief. He says that he is able to see ghosts and he wants to communicate with aliens.
And Bill claims he was told by his animal psychic that his pet Jack Russell, Poppy, does impressions of Deirdre Barlow, his soap character’s wife, played by the late Anne Kirkbride.
After joining the Pure Love Movement, Bill became so committed to spreading a “message on the power of love” that he split from his girlfriend, weather forecaster Emma Jesson, 47, in 2013. Then the star – who claims to have slept with more than 1000 women – gave up sex to focus on healing people with his hands.
He explained at the time: “I don’t need a sexual relationship any more. Things still work, everything works, but I don’t have that need for sex I used to have. This is the time when I have to look at the priorities of things. I have the Pure Love message, which I am very privileged to be involved in.”
Bill is part of the Circle of Love group, who are associated with the Pure Love Movement. The group’s founder, retired nurse Anne Rogers, has strongly denied any cult comparisons. She has said: “It’s not a religion, it’s not a cult.
“The message is 100 per cent just love. We are not trying to convert anyone. Any religion, any nationality, all are welcome.”
But how did the man who plays the rather pedestrian Ken come to be part of something so intriguing?
Born Nottinghamshire in 1932, Bill grew up in Ilkeston, Derbyshire. He