William Roache net worth: William Roache is an English actor with a $5 million dollar net worth. William Roache grew up in Ilkeston, Derbyshire, England, and was born in Basford, Nottinghamshire, England.
In the early 1950s, he joined the Royal Welsh Fusiliers and rose through the ranks to become a lieutenant.
In 1957, he quit the army and began to pursue a career as a performer. In the early 1960s, he began starring in minor television roles in shows like “Knight Errant Limited” and “ITV Television Playhouse.”
However, it is his role as Ken Barlow on the popular soap opera “Coronation Street” that has garnered him the greatest attention. He’s been a regular on the show since 1960. He has starred in a number of reality shows and television specials in addition to his role on “Coronation Street.”
He was charged with many charges of indecent assault and/or rape of a group of females in the late 1960s when he was apprehended in 2013. He is currently being investigated, with a trial scheduled for mid-2014. His character from “Coronation Street” has been written out.
Personal Life
Roache is a resident of Wilmslow, Cheshire. Linus Roache, his eldest son by his first wife Anna Cropper (1938–2007), is an actor (born 1964). Vanya Roache and Cropper were married from 1961 to 1974 before divorcing.
In 1978, Roache married Sara McEwan Mottram, his second wife. She died suddenly on February 7, 2009, at the age of 58, at their home. He had a daughter, Verity (born 1981), and a younger son, actor James Roache, with Sara (christened William; born 1985).
Edwina, a second daughter, died on November 16, 1984, at the age of 18 months. From 2010 to 2012, Roache dated weather reporter Emma Jesson.
Roache won a libel case against The Sun in 1991, after the newspaper portrayed him as boring and unpopular among his fellow Coronation Street actors.
The jury awarded him £50,000 in damages, the same sum he had rejected in an out-of-court settlement with the newspaper before to the case. As a result, he was responsible for the £120,000 in costs. In 1998, Roache sued his law firm for malpractice, and in April 1999, he was declared bankrupt.
In contrast to his character Ken Barlow, who is perceived as a Labour supporter, Roache is a Conservative Party supporter. He defended Sir John Major as Britain’s finest post-war prime leader as a guest on Daily Politics in 2007.
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In the 1997 election, he backed Conservative MP Neil Hamilton against Martin Bell. During the 2011 vote on the issue, Roache rejected instant-runoff voting in favor of first-past-the-post voting.
In 2006, Roache became a patron of Sustained Magic Ltd, an Ilkeston-based production firm.
Roache is a vegetarian who claims he “doesn’t want animals to be slaughtered” for him. In his biography, he mentions his interest in astrology, which he learnt through a correspondence course from the Faculty of Astrological Studies.
He said that the accuracy with which he interpreted their astrological charts for them had impressed members of the Coronation Street cast.
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Legal Issues
Lancashire Police arrested Roache on May 1, 2013, on suspicion of raping a 15-year-old girl in 1967, an allegation he rejected. Following that, the Crown Prosecution Service confirmed that he would be charged with two charges of rape.
On 14 May 2013, a preliminary hearing was held in a Magistrates’ court, then on 10 June 2013, a Crown Court hearing was held. Roache was charged with five more counts of indecent assault on children aged 12 to 16 on June 6, 2013. On September 2, Roache appeared in Preston Crown Court and pleaded not guilty to all charges.
The complete trial began on January 14, 2014, before Judge Anthony Russell QC at Preston Crown Court. During the trial, the court rejected one accusation outright due to a lack of evidence, and substantial problems in two witnesses’ testimony in regard to the other allegations were discovered.
Roache was found not guilty of all charges on February 6, 2014. Following his acquittal, Roache issued a brief statement in which he stated that “no one won” and that he intended to “go back to work.” Due to fears of vandalism, a picture of Ken Barlow was removed from the Madame Tussauds waxwork show in Blackpool.
Following Roache’s acquittal, the waxwork was returned to the exhibition in February 2014. In June 2014, Roache started filming on Coronation Street, and on August 4 of that year, he returned to the screen.
