Rudolph Walker was secretly "homeless and penniless" for two years while working on 'EastEnders'.
Rudolph Walker was secretly homeless
The 84-year-old soap legend - who has played Patrick Trueman since 2001 - kept his secret "double life" hidden from his co-stars and children but would often break down and cry in "utter despair" as he headed to work.
Rudolph's problems started in the mid-2010s due to the legal costs of his divorce from Dounne Alexander and, with nothing but his car to his name, he relied on staying with friends and hoping for night shoots on the soap so he'd have to be put up in a hotel.
He told the Daily Mirror newspaper: “It was painful. It was extremely difficult. I just didn’t have any financial means. I was literally starting from scratch again in my 70s, with nowhere to live. It was a time of great pain and loneliness.
“Some days on my way to the studio, I would pull up at the side of the road, have a cry.
"I’d pull myself together, arrive at the studio and the environment would act as a tonic, and I was ready to go. I suppose it was a sort of double life.”
Rudolph hit his lowest point after securing a stay in a cheap hotel.
He recalled: “There was a wash basin, small bed, and a TV in the corner, with a communal shower and toilet in the corridor.
“I sat on the bed and cried. Questions of: ‘Who am I? Why am I in this position?’ There was no way the public watching me as Patrick every other night were aware that was what was happening.”
And he claimed only his co-star Diane Parish, who plays Denise Fox, had an idea there was something wrong and would pull her friend aside to see if he was OK.
Rudolph said: “Diane knew there was something going on, but I never revealed the depth of what was happening. I am who I am.”
But the former 'Love Thy Neighbour' actor - who has two adult children, Darren, 52, and 48-year-old Sheona - is now "extremely happy" with where his life is now, back on his feet and surrounded by "fantastic" neighbours in Reading.
He said: “I know today, people will go to a psychiatrist, seek help, and maybe I should have done, but I was getting it with the people that I had around me.
“I am where I am today because of decisions I made over the years. Am I happy with where I am today? Yes, I’m extremely happy. [So] maybe someone, the old man up there, is looking after me...
“Never give up. One of the things that always sticks with me is where there’s life, there’s hope.”