EASTENDERS star Charlie Brooks has revealed her ex Tony Truman “cried” when she split with her boyfriend Ben Hollington.
The soap icon, 39, said the trio were super close as they raised Charlie and Tony’s daughter Kiki together – thanks to Tony living in the flat upstairs.
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Charlie, who is set to return to Albert Square as Janine Butcher as part of a “huge story” later this year, spoke about her past relationships with presenter Kate Thornton.
Speaking on Yahoo UK’s White Wine Question Time podcast, she said: “My ex partner Ben, who I was with for five or six years, who’s an amazing human being, you know, we woke up on Christmas Day together, all of us.
“Tony would come down, we’d all get into bed and open the presents together with Kiki, cos she adores Ben, and I think it can be problematic.
“I think he probably has more issues with that sort of thing than I do. I’ve been single for four years, so that’s the longest I’ve ever been single.
“Then I was with Ben before that for five or six years, who was just really accepting. Tony absolutely adored him, we all went on holiday together.
“Tony cried when me and Ben broke up. He actually cried.”
One man who will always be in her life is Ibiza nightclub owner Tony, who she split from in 2007.
She added: “We are going to grow old together, just in a very different way. He is absolutely my family and nothing will ever change that.
“And it’s not always been easy, he’s in Ibiza for eight or nine months out of the year and bringing Kiki up on my own a lot of the time was tough and we’ve really had to navigate our way around that.
“But whatever happens, no matter how much we fall out, which we have done, big time, it’s not always plain sailing, but 80 per cent of the time it is and he’s a good man and he’s looked after us.
“He’s a character, I love him to bits, he can be an a******e sometimes, but nobody’s perfect are they?”
Charlie is best known for playing villainous Janine Butcher in EastEnders between 1999 to 2004 and again in 2008 until 2014.
Her portrayal of supervillain Janine bagged her a number of awards, including Villain of the Year at the British Soap Awards in 2004.
The star was embroiled in a number of dramatic storylines during her time on the show, which saw three of Janine’s four husbands meet grisly ends.
