Who is Rula Lenska and when was she married to Dennis Waterman?
EX Corrie star Rula Lenska comes from Polish nobility and has starred in a number of shows.
Rula has appeared in everything from Celebrity Big Brother to Minder with her ex-husband Dennis Waterman.
Who is Rula Lenska and who did she play in Coronation Street?
Rula Lenska, 74, was born in St Neots, Cambridgeshire on September 30, 1947.
She famously starred in a series of commercials for Alberto VO5 hairspray in the late 1970s and early 1980s.
Rula is best known for her role as Claudia Colby, an old friend of Audrey Roberts, in Coronation Street.
She first joined the ITV soap in May 2011, but quit the role in order to join the Calendar Girls tour in August 2011.
Rula then did another stint on Corrie in 2018.
In 2022 she teased a return to the Corrie cobbles.
She went on DNA journey in 2022 and discovered that her great aunt helped an orphanage escape the Warsaw ghetto in 1940.
Her family is of Polish nobility but she rarely uses her title of Countess, having ditched it in the late 70s.
She said: "In England, it doesn't count - if you'll excuse the pun."
When was Rula Lenska married to Dennis Waterman and did they have children?
Rula was married to actor Brian Deacon from 1977 to 1987 and the pair had a daughter, Lara, together.
In 1982, Rula met her next husband Dennis Waterman on the set of Minder, his hit show, when their characters were romantically involved.
The pair were married from January 3, 1987, to March 31, 1998.
She and Dennis did not have any children together.
In an interview with Piers Morgan in 2012, Dennis revealed that the marriage had ended because he was violent towards Rula.
He said: "It's not difficult for a woman to make a man hit her. She certainly wasn't a beaten wife, she was hit and that’s different."
Rula had made allegations against him when they split and said, via friend Denise Welch on Loose Women, she was relieved he had finally admitted it.
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What other TV shows has Rula been in?
Rula has appeared on TV shows such as Special Branch, Minder, Boon, The Detectives, Footballers' Wives, To the Manor Born, One Foot in the Grave, Casualty, Space: 1999, Return of the Saint and Robin Of Sherwood.
Since her debut as the Little Ladies band member "Q" in the British TV series Rock Follies (1976) she has worked consistently across TV, film and theatre.
She's also appeared in several stage productions, including The Vagina Monologues and 84 Charing Cross Road.
In January 2006, she appeared in Celebrity Big Brother alongside the likes of George Galloway and Pete Burns.
She was the third housemate to be voted out of the show.
Rula has appeared in 18 films, one of which is in post-production.
Her role as Claudia Colby on Coronation Street is one which she has returned to multiple times over the years.