SA-WAR-LHAS
Inside the bitter feud between Loose Women’s Nadia Sawalha and sister Julia — fuelled by men, jealousy and their father
ONE sister is famous for discussing her private life on Loose Women and the other for playing strait-laced Saffy in Absolutely Fabulous.
But relations between Nadia and Julia Sawalha are anything but Ab Fab.
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This week, the feud between the Sawalha sisters reignited for the umpteenth time when Julia accused Nadia of “destroying” their family and crying “fake tears for attention”.
The 50-year-old actress took to Twitter after TV presenter Nadia, 54, claimed on Loose Women that their relationship was “volatile”.
It comes after the sisters’ bitter bust-up nearly two decades ago over Julia’s then-boyfriend Alan Davies, 53.
Nadia branded the notoriously private comic “a miserable git” after he complained about photos of him at Nadia’s wedding in a magazine.
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The sisters did not speak for almost two years. They patched things up after Julia and Davies split in 2004.
Nadia said at the time: “I’ve never liked one of Julia’s boyfriends yet. For a comedian, he’s a miserable git.”
She added: “We’ve had some rocky times, but the culprit has always been men.”
But we can reveal their lifelong grudge runs much deeper and was instilled into them as children by their father Nadim.
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Jordanian-born Nadim, 88, moved to the UK in the 1950s and later married their English mother Roberta, known as Bobbie, now 81.
Speaking on Loose Women earlier this week, Nadia was close to tears as she said: “We’ve always had a really volatile relationship.
“We’ve always had periods in our life where we don’t speak. I have the best time or the worst time of my life with her.”
Nadia said that Nadim came to the UK “with £50 in his pocket”.
'SHE CONSTANTLY TOLD ME WHAT TO DO'
And she has previously said of her father: “His sister was married off at 14. He said, ‘I want strong, independent, professional women that follow their dreams’.
“What he got was three really independent, difficult women.”
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Nadia and Julia — along with eldest sister Dina, 56, — grew up in Croydon, South London. But after Julia was born, Nadia was forced to live apart from her family.
She recalls: “When my mum had Julia, I was so excited I kept wanting to pick her up and cuddle her. My mum, who was a bit postnatal, got scared and sent me to her mother’s.
“Julia was a beautiful baby and everyone was crazy about her, so my sister Dina and I were a bit jealous.
“And as she grew up she was very much ‘Daddy’s little girl’.”
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Nadim was an actor and starred in 1977 adventure movie Sinbad And The Eye Of The Tiger.
Nadia has said: “My dad’s acting career was hugely influential in making Julia and me follow in his footsteps. We spent most of our summer holidays on film sets.”
The sisters even managed to set aside their differences in 1997, when all three appeared in the play Dearest Daddy . . . Darling Daughter at the Young Vic theatre.
While Julia took offence to her older sister openly discussing their feud this week, she has been more candid about their stormy relationship in the past.
Speaking in 2007, she said: “There have been moments in my life when I’ve had the love I wanted from her.
“But there were also times when she’d keep me at a distance.”
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And she recalled an incident that shows just how deep their rivalry runs.
“I remember being about four and my mum reading me a story when Nadia screamed,” Julia said. “She’d stood on a piece of wood and a nail had gone through her foot.
“We had to go to hospital, and I remember thinking, ‘She did that on purpose because I was having a story read to me’. How awful!”
Julia added: “I’ve always wanted Nadia’s approval, but as the years went on I got tired of her bossing me around.”
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And according to Julia, it was Nadia the family thought would become an actress because she was “really good at acting at school”.
But she harboured dreams of becoming a nurse and briefly had her own sandwich business after leaving school.
'PERIODS WHERE WE DIDN'T SPEAK'
Julia helped her big sister but recalled: “She kept telling me what to do — how to cut the crusts properly, that sort of thing.
“After a while, I decided the next time she did it l was going to explode. When it happened, I slammed down my sandwich knife.
“‘I don’t want to do this any more,’ I said. Then I walked out. That began one of several periods when we didn’t speak.”
The sisters later patched things up. Nadia came to Julia — by then a successful actress having appeared in ITV teen drama Press Gang and hit BBC comedy Absolutely Fabulous — asking for her help.
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Julia recalled: “She said she wanted to get into acting, but didn’t have an agent. So I rang mine and he took her on.”
By then, Nadia had moved into Julia’s North London home. Unsurprisingly, it wasn’t long before the sisters came to blows.
Julia recalls: “We ended up having a slamming-doors argument about who had what room. She left and again I wouldn’t speak to her.”
'LOTS OF DRINK AND LATE NIGHTS'
In 1997, Nadia landed the role of Annie Palmer in EastEnders but it seemed she was still living in her little sister’s shadow.
Nadia recalled: “When I went into EastEnders everyone called me Julia. It made me feel insecure.”
That same year, her first husband Justin Mildwater took his own life.
Nadia struggled to deal with her grief and later admitted: “There was a lot of drink and a lot of late nights.”
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Nadia left EastEnders in 1999 and went on to forge a successful career as a TV presenter.
She met TV producer Mark Adderley and became pregnant in 2002 with their eldest daughter Maddie, now 16. At that point, Nadia says, she “immediately stopped drinking”.
They tied the knot a few months later and Julia was invited to the wedding — but fell out after Davies accused Nadia of selling photos of him and Julia at the event.
After Julia split up with Davies in 2004, she stepped back from acting and moved to Bath in Somerset. But in 2016 she reprised her role as Saffy in the movie version of Ab Fab.
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It was on the set of the film that she met sound engineer Luke Hollingworth, who is 17 years her junior, and they have been together ever since.
And a chance encounter on a trip to London to see her mother prompted her and Nadia to start talking again.
Julia recalled: “Nadia lives next door, and when I saw her at the window I walked over to her house.
“She came to the door and I said: ‘I miss you.’ ‘Oh, Julia,’ she said, ‘how brave of you!’ We hugged. I thought she didn’t love me. Now I know it’s the opposite.”
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Nadia, who gave birth to second daughter Kiki-Bee in August 2007, said in the past: “Julia and I have gone through loads of spells not speaking to each other, but this last time, when we were very angry with each other, it was really horrible.
“After that I think we went through a lot of growing up, and I’m sure it’ll never happen again.”
Sadly, for the sisters, that just doesn’t seem to be the case.
Emotional Nadia Sawalha talks about her rocky relationship with sister Julia on Loose Women
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