Patsy Palmer: 'I'm glad I turned down heroin'

Patsy Palmer: 'I'm glad I turned down heroin'
Patsy Palmer: 'I'm glad I turned down heroin' (Image credit: PA Archive/Press Association Ima)

EastEnders actress Patsy Palmer has spoken about her stint in rehab, her drug-addict brother and her soap future on Piers Morgan Life Stories. In an interview due to air on ITV1 in the next few weeks, Patsy told how she was offered heroin once but refused as she feared she might end up like her drug-addict brother. According to The Sun, Patsy said: "I was offered heroin once, I remember it very clearly. I was too scared and I'm so glad that I was - as I could've gone down a very different road." Patsy revealed that she no longer sees her brother Albert due his drug addiction as there is no more help she can give him. "He's in prison now. I speak to him and he seems OK, but you can never tell. "I never know what he could have been. There was so much potential, but I'm sadder for my mum. She still loves him desperately, but as a family we've reached acceptance. He is what he is, he does what he does." Patsy also spoke about her own drug past: "I was just drinking and didn't know when to stop. I was taking a lot of ecstasy at that time. I used to pop out and not come back for two days." Now Patsy is seven years sober and is currently on maternity leave from EastEnders with her fourth child Bertie. Speaking about being away from the show, she said: "I don't miss it. At the moment I'm being a mum and that's the job I want to do, so I don't miss being at work. I don't know when I'm going back. "You could be watching it one minute then it's your funeral the next. You never know." Click here to watch whatsontv.co.uk's weekly soaps video preview, the Soap Scoop

Patrick McLennan

Patrick McLennan is a London-based journalist and documentary maker who has worked as a writer, sub-editor, digital editor and TV producer in the UK and New Zealand. His CV includes spells as a news producer at the BBC and TVNZ, as well as web editor for Time Inc UK. He has produced TV news and entertainment features on personalities as diverse as Nick Cave, Tom Hardy, Clive James, Jodie Marsh and Kevin Bacon and he co-produced and directed The Ponds, which has screened in UK cinemas, BBC Four and is currently available on Netflix. 

An entertainment writer with a diverse taste in TV and film, he lists Seinfeld, The Sopranos, The Chase, The Thick of It and Detectorists among his favourite shows, but steers well clear of most sci-fi.