Patsy Palme from DANCING On Icer lives an incredible life in America with his famous children.
The EastEnders icon, 50, is back in the UK competing in the ITV contest at the moment, but normally she’s based in California.
Patsy Palmer with children Fenton, Emilia and Bertie, and her husband Richard [/caption]
Patsy joined EastEnders as Bianca Jackson in 1993[/caption]
Patsy Palmer and her first husband Nick Love[/caption]
The EastEnders icon – who overcame a 20-year addiction to drugs and alcohol – and partied in the 90s and has previously admitted “I’m amazed I survived”.
Yet she now lives an idyllic life in Malibu, just west of Los Angeles, where her days are filled with yoga, meditation, walking and family time.
She told The Sun last year: “I’ve worked so much around it, had so much therapy and now I feel like my life is more balanced than it has ever been.”
Patsy started drinking alcohol at age eight, snorting solvents at age 11, and taking cocaine at age 13.
She was just 20 and a single mother to baby Charley when she landed the role of Bianca Jackson in EastEnders in 1993.
After her first marriage to film producer Nick Love broke up in 1998, she found herself living in a one-bedroom apartment with Charley, but her life revolved around alcohol and drugs.
She wrote in her 2007 autobiography, All Of Me: “At 20, I ate cocaine, ecstasy and enough vodka and Laurent Perrier champagne to quench the thirst of a small village for several hours.
“I would be out of my head for two or three days straight – whole chunks of time were wasted. I took so many drugs that I’m amazed I survived.
An EastEnders producer spotted her struggling and had her checked into rehab where she eventually came clean.
“I am a drug addict. I have it in my genes, but the problem is, I didn’t know how to go about it at the time,” she later told Fabulous magazine.
“I don’t know how I survived. It was the producer who first referred me for help when she realized things were spiraling out of control. I was having a nervous breakdown.
Patsy then married London taxi driver Richard Merkell in 2000, claiming he provided her with the stability she needed to avoid alcohol.
“We don’t have drinks at home. Richard is a social drinker but he doesn’t drink at home. I follow the 12-step program of Alcoholics Anonymous and Narcotics Anonymous.
They went on to have three more children – Fenton, 20, Emilia, 19 and Bertie, nine – and moved to Malibu from Brighton in 2014, where Patsy started DJing.
Patsy gave fans a glimpse of her magical lifestyle on Instagram, which is worlds away from her on-screen character Bianca.
For their senior year, Fenton and Emilia dropped out of school and completed their education through online classes to give them the flexibility to go to castings as and when needed.
“They had gotten to the age of about 16 where you decide what you want to do and they just wanted to be home getting small jobs,” Patsy told The Sun.
“They’re just teenagers, really. They are beautiful children and they are always asked to model, so they do. Emilia does it to pay for her car. They both have things to pay, because I don’t pay for that!
“Emilia likes to play and she’s a good designer. She goes to thrift stores, buys stuff and resells it online, so she learns business acumen, she tries a bit of everything.
“Charley is doing incredibly well. He is everywhere traveling for work. He still makes films and he also likes to write.
Bertie is a promising athlete and hopes to be a footballer (or “soccer player” as he puts it, having grown up in the United States).
There had been rumors that the family would star in a Kardashian-style reality series and Patsy confirmed they were in talks with producers.
“Yes, it’s happening. We are talking about it seriously with an American production company. The Kardashians are great — I know a few of them and they’re really nice people, but we’re not them,” she said.
“We have a lot more male energy in the family to start with, even the dogs are boys. And there’s me and Emilia trying to work it all out.
“My daughter has an extremely close relationship with her father, whom I adore. It’s something that I didn’t have personally. »
Model Patsy at the Night of the Big Cat show in London in 1999[/caption]
