Baby joy for Ender Sid
Actor to wed old flame Victoria
Ex-eastenders actor Sid Owen is “over the moon” to reveal he is set to become a father – and get married to The One.
The star, Ricky Butcher in the BBC soap, found romance after years as a singleton when he and old flame Victoria Shores rekindled their romance online during lockdown.
Sid said he knew she was “the one” and proposed last month – and their baby is due in January.
“I never dreamed I’d have kids,” said Sid, 49. “The older you get, the more distant that idea seems. You give up hope sometimes, so this is a miracle. I’m over the moon.”
The couple know the baby’s sex but are keeping it secret. Victoria, 42 – already a mum of two – said Sid will be a “chilled dad”. He added: “I’m glad I’m doing this now rather than in my 20s. I’d have been a rubbish dad then.”
Sid revealed he nearly gave up on love after a freak golf accident in January 2020 left him temporarily disfigured and killed his confidence. He broke his jaw, lost several teeth and needed £10,000 of surgery af
Since meeting her life has become worth
living again
ter a ball hit him in the face.
“I was a single man for five or six years and a bit depressed,” he said. “After the golf accident came lockdown and I was lost. I had no confidence to meet people or go on dates. Since meeting Victoria, life is worth living again.”
The pair first dated in 1998, after meeting at a bash thrown by Rolling Stone Ronnie Wood during Sid’s hardpartying days. The affair fizzled out – but after more than two decades they began chatting via Facebook a year ago.
Sid says: “I’m so glad we’re back together now as we’d never have lasted then. I was on TV and it was all a bit crazy. I had a few short-term relationships, nothing serious. After my last, I thought I’d be a bachelor for life.”
Wedding plans are under way, he adds. Guests at the Kent spa ceremony will include Patsy Palmer, who played his Enders wife Bianca. Sid laughs: “I was going to get my mate Bruce Springsteen to sing. Ed Sheeran too. And I’ll invite Al Pacino, who played my dad in the 1985 film Revolution.”
He has a new book called From Rags to Ricky out now, in which he writes of his troubled youth, including his father going to jail for robbery and the death of his mum when he was eight.
“I feel very lucky to be here and I count my blessings, especially after meeting Victoria,” he said.