DALE LEGEND REVEALS My cheating, gambling ex husband drove me to drink & debt says Claire King

“I was £9,000 short of paying my mortgage off and then suddenly, poof. It was just horrible and it was draining.”

They divorced after ten years of marriage when it emerged Amory had been cheating on her with co-star Samantha Giles, who played Bernice Blackstock.

Claire spoke to addiction counsellor Mandy Saligari about the painful split f or Channel 5’ s In Therapy, which airs next week.

Admitting she felt like a “failure”, she said: “We’d split up due to his infidelity. That and the f act every bugger knew.

“I t happened in my house, t he l o c a l pub, workplace.

“Then they split and we thought we’d work i t out, then they got together again. Six months later... finished. I felt as though it was the end of some something but also a failure. AndAn I didn’t want it to be a fa failure. “It was a loss as well. It was a failu failure of a marriage but th the loss of a good friend friend. I really didn’t know it would affect me so b badly.” Claire als also spoke candidly aboutabo using booze to mask her own money worr worries after struggling to find work whe when she quit ITV prisonpris drama Bad G Girls. She enjoye enjoyed a string of topt roles sinc since her big bre break in an Ad Adam Ant po pop video ini n 1982, so to be fa facing fin financial ruin as work dried up was tough. She told of: “Hitting 40, having a divorce and not having children and getting deeper into debt. To the point where I sold my wardrobe, dresses, everything, even collectors’ items. I had no money. I thought, ‘God, am I ever going to work again?’

“I think I was depressed. I was on a very rocky road at the time. It wasn’t a great time and that’s where I went a bit off the rails, drinking too much.

Emotions

“I thought I was coping but it’s the old adage – it doesn’t help at all. I know I’m not an alcoholic but I do like a drink. I do use it as a crutch and I am aware it’s really bad for feelings and emotions when you’re in a bad place.

“I didn’t know if I’d hit rock bottom or not. It was low enough for me to look around and think, ‘Woah, this is not right, I’m not functioning properly. Maybe I’m not working because I’m not giving off the right signals.’”

Landing the part of Erica Holroyd in Coronation Street et in 2014, after she hadad a facelift, helped ed turn things around.nd.

“It got me out t of that black hole,” e,” said Claire. “My agent at the time me had said, ‘Right, what you need is a facelift.’celift.’ It got me loads of work because I just felt better about myself and it gave me a little e perk up.”

During the counsellingunselling sessions the actress, who o quit Corrie in August, reflected ted further on getting older.

She said: “I was as this 25-year-old who did 100 frontnt covers or whatever. Now I’m a bit invisible really. I’ll be a pensionerer in five years.”

And talking of how she never had children, Claire aire said: “It just never happened. Pete already had a son and didn’t particularly want any more. And I got a career, I was just starting out, then bang, before you knoww it – ticktock, tick-tock – and that’s