Loose Women's Sherrie Hewson is single, sober and sanguine after years of struggle. Roz Laws talks to a star happy to keep life simple these days.

She’s had a more turbulent life than most, going through bankruptcy, an unhappy marriage and battles with alcohol and anorexia.

Now Sherrie Hewson has had enough. She reveals she’s given up on men and is resigned to staying single, devoting all her time to her grandchildren.

The actress – star of Coronation Street, Benidorm and Loose Women – insists: “The only man in my life is five-year-old Oliver.”

Sherrie, who shot to fame as Reg Holdsworth’s wife Maureen in Corrie, has been separated from club doorman Ken Boyd since 2001 and divorced for a year.

“I know you should never say never, and it’s possible that someone could walk into my life, but I really can’t imagine that happening,” says the 61-year-old, who briefly dated Steve McQueen when she was a drama student and was engaged to Robert Lindsay.

“I think it’s too late. I’ve got used to being on my own now and it doesn’t worry me.

“It would be quite nice to have someone to go home to, to moan at and ask advice from. Someone to talk things through with – that’s what I miss the most, but it would be very hard to share my house with anyone now.

“And can I be bothered to meet someone? My attempts at dating have not been at all successful. I went out for dinner with this man and said I’d like some red wine. He said ‘A glass? I’m driving, I can only have one glass’.

“He reluctantly forked out for a bottle, poured me a glass and then put the cork back in. How dare he tell me how many glasses of wine I can have! So I had three glasses, which made me really ill, but I was determined that this man wouldn’t dictate to me.

“I was really miffed about that. I just don’t think I’m in the right frame of mine to have a relationship – I think I’ve forgotten how!

“I just want to devote all my time to my grandchildren, Oliver and Molly, who’s 15 months. They are my whole life.”

Sherrie was born in Nottingham and is returning to the Midlands to star in pantomime this year – she’s villainous Lady Temple-Savage in Jack and the Beanstalk at the Grand Theatre, Wolverhampton, alongside Keith Harris and Orville.

The character is named after her Benidorm character of Spanish hotel manager Joyce Temple-Savage.

“I love playing baddies, as you can be so horrible to the children.

“I’m looking forward to having a number with some beautiful boy dancers, though I’m not sure if I will be singing properly. We’ll probably have an Eartha Kitt-type number where I talk rather than sing, so I’m not scared about hitting the notes.

“I used to sing but I lost my nerve. Then I had a go at karaoke while filming Benidorm. I sang Wannabe by the Spice Girls but the people in the bar thought it was just dreadful – I was met with a stunned silence!” Sherrie revealed that a new series of Benidorm is on its way and another one will be filmed next year. “I do love making that series and long may it last, although it is hard work,” she says. “We start at 5am and film until 7pm to make the most of the sun.

“We are spray-tanned every two days. By the time we end, it’s all mottled and I look like I’ve got some dreadful disease.”

Sherrie attributes her success in Benidorm, and especially her decade as a panellist on Loose Women, in helping to put her life back together.

When her marriage failed and she was left bankrupt, she began to lose her hair through stress and had a drink problem and an eating disorder.