EastEnders legend Barbara Windsor’s widower ‘doesn’t feel guilty’ about new relationship after her death
Barbara Windsor played Peggy Mitchell in the BBC soap(Image: BBC)
EastEnders legend Barbara Windsor’s widower has said he ‘doesn’t feel guilty’ about entering a new relationship after the soap icon’s death.
The Carry On actress is best known for playing the role of Queen Vic owner Peggy Mitchell on the BBC soap between 1994 and 2016.
Winning the British Soap Award for Best Actress and made a dame at the 2016 New Year Honours for services to charity and entertainment, Barbara is one of the programme’s biggest ever stars.
Sadly, Barbara passed away in 2020, aged 83, after living with Alzheimer’s since 2014, leaving soap fans around the world devastated.
It emerged two years ago that Barbara’s husband Scott Mitchell, who she married in 2000, found love with her co-star Tanya Franks.
Speaking to the Sunday Mirror, Scott called out the critics of his new relationship with the woman who played Rainie Cross until 2022.
“I’m incredibly happy. Me being unhappy and alone is not going to bring Barbara back. Life is very much for the living and we all get one shot at living.
Scott Mitchell with his late wife, Dame Barbara Windsor(Image: Getty Images)
“Of course, there’s always someone on the internet, who’s going to say, ‘Oh, it didn’t take him long’. Well, maybe they forget the fact that Barbara’s illness possibly started initially 10 years before she passed so you’re grieving while they’re alive.
“You lose them while they’re alive. I didn’t feel guilty because I knew I had Barbara’s blessing because of what she’d always said to me,” he said.
Saying ‘it would be impossible’ for him ‘not to miss her’, Scott recalled how she told him to ‘move on’ and enjoy ‘the best life ever’.
He explained: “I also look at the fact that Barbara led an incredible life. And some! And she most likely lived 10 lives over compared to the rest of us.
“Before she had dementia, she would say to me, ‘When I die, be broken hearted, please. I want you to cry your eyes out. But then you promise me that you have the best life ever. Because that’s what I did’.
“The fact that we had 27 years together anyway was the most incredible thing. It shouldn’t have worked but we did spend this incredible life together.”
Scott continued: “Now when I look back, I feel blessed for the time we spent together. Barbara changed my life in so many ways.”
Refusing to compare Barbara and Tanya, Scott said they are ‘very different’ from one another as he provided an insight into his love life.
“Tanya is a wonderful lady. She’s very private. She’s not how Barbara was in that respect. Barbara was an open book. Barbara told you every detail about her life. Tanya has no interest in celebrity.
“She is a very good actress. At the moment, she’s appearing with the Royal Shakespeare Company in Stratford-upon-Avon in Much Ado About Nothing.
“I don’t compare the two ladies. They’re very different and I have love for both of them. I wouldn’t be with anyone who wasn’t truly lovely,” he said.
