Ten things you never knew about Barbara Windsor

[carmelina]

EastEnders star, Carry On icon, timeless pin-up, 50 years in showbusiness have made Barbara Windsor - all 4ft 10in of her - into a national institution. She'll celebrate her 70th birthday in August, but she's still bursting with more energy than a puppy with a ProPlus habit. She even managed to charm Digital Spy on the BAFTA red carpet recently. But there's more to the busty blonde bombshell than meets the eye. Read on to find out more about her truly fascinating life...

1. Barbara has been married three times, to gangster Ronnie Knight (1964-1985), publican Stephen Hollings (1986-1995) and actor Scott Mitchell (2000 to date).

2. Barbara has had five abortions. "I don't have any regrets about not having kids," she insists, "I've just never had those maternal feelings. I am a nurturer by nature, but I nurture adults: my friends, the people I work with. I don't want to nurture children."

3. Barbara won the first ever Rear of the Year award in 1976. And to think that people say she's only famous for her chest!

4. Barbara's take on feminism: "I run around men like a tit in a trance. I know feminists say: 'Why do this, Windsor?' but I've always been my own woman. I've always paid my own way."

5. She made her screen debut as an unnamed student in The Belles of St. Trinian's in 1955.

6. Barbara has never earned a penny from Carry On merchandise, video and DVD sales or TV repeats. We're guessing, with the benefit of hindsight, she wishes she'd negotiated a percentage.

7. The Queen Vic isn't the first pub in which Barbara's pulled pints. She used to run a hostelry in Winchmore Hill, Buckinghamshire.

8. Barbara admits in her autobiography All Of Me that she's enjoyed the company of over 100 lovers. What a girl!

9. Barbara had an affair with her Carry On co-star Sid James. "He'd been pestering me for months," she recalls, "At the time, I didn't even fancy him. But he obviously thought I was this raving, sexy little thing and I thought if I did the dirty deed he'd leave me alone."

10. She also enjoyed a brief romantic liaison with sixties gangster Reggie Kray.


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[Skylace]

You got love her! Thanks for posting this!

[alan1254]

When she was a little girl she grew up across the street from the Krays they were her friends until they went to jail, she has stated several times that she based Peggy on Eastenders totaly on Violet Kray their mother and the 'my boys can do no wrong' attitude is totally Violet Kray

[eefanincan]

She's got quite the past, hasn't she? At least the media can't really say much that would hurt her, she's so public about this kind of thing. Good for her!

[Canniescot]

Her honesty is kind of refreshing in amongst all the hype that we usually get dished out!