Gillian Taylforth gets recognised in "weird places".
Gillian Taylforth doesn't mind attention from fans
The 67-year-old actress is known to millions of television viewers for her role as Kathy Beale in the BBC soap opera 'EastEnders' and insisted that while she "doesn't mind" at all when fans call her by her character's name, she finds it "weird" to be asked for a photo in the toilet.
She told The Daily Mirror newspaper: "I’ve been recognised in some weird places. It’s happened in the toilet. Someone asked me for a picture with the lovely backdrop of the sink. I said, ‘Can we move away from the bogs?’ People call me Kathy all the time but I don’t mind it.
The former 'Strictly Come Dancing' star - who has Jessica, 31, and 24-year-old Harrison with partner Geoff Knights - went on to explain that her children used to get "so fed up" when she was spotted in public because she would have to spend hours signing autographs but she herself has "never minded" the attention because the fans are the people who keep the show on the air.
She added: "My children used to get so fed up because it took me two-and-a-half hours to go shopping because people would stop me and ask me to sign this and sign that. But I don’t mind. It is part and parcel of being on a soap. So long as people are nice and pleasant, then it’s fine. I’ve never minded because they’re the people who watch the show and keep us going."
The former 'Loose Women' panellist initially played Kathy from 1985 until 2000 but returned to the part in 2015 and explained that she never divulges any gossip from upcoming storylines and has to "get out" of revealing all to friends.
She said: "I don’t say anything to anybody. It’s more exciting for the public if they don’t know what’s going on. Some of my friends will say, ‘What’s going to happen?’ And I go, ‘Oh I can’t tell you otherwise I will have to kill you’. That’s the easiest way to get out of it.”
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