Ronnie O’Sullivan was deemed “too hairy” to be a ‘Holby City’ body double.
Ronnie O'Sullivan
The 45-year-old professional snooker player is in a relationship with soap star Laila Rouass, but was unable to make his big debut on the medical drama himself after he was told he was too hairy to be a patient.
Amid the COVID-19 pandemic, bosses have opted to use actors’ real-life partners as body doubles for other characters in the close-contact scenes, but for Laila – who is returning to ‘Holby City’ as cardiothoracic surgeon Sahira Shah after almost a decade away – that wasn’t possible, thanks to Ronnie’s excessive body hair.
Laila told ‘Saturday Kitchen’: "It's so funny. What happens now is if you've got to touch somebody, like a patient, you've got to know them, they've got to be in your bubble.
"So they bring in somebody that's in your bubble and just cut away. So I was like 'oh yeah Ronnie can come' and they looked at his pictures and they said 'no no, he's just too hairy – we're never going to be able to match them'.
"So he didn't come in in the end. I think it would have been fun to have him as a supporting artist. I think it's the Italian [in him]."
And although Ronnie won’t be appearing on the BBC drama, Laila will make her big comeback this week in Tuesday’s (09.02.21) episode, after Rosie Marcel's departure as Sahira’s nemesis Jac Naylor last week.
But things are set to go wrong for Sahira during an operation, and she will be left heartbroken by what ensues in theatre.
Laila is also well known for playing Amber Gates in Noughties drama 'Footballers' Wives', which featured 'Coronation Street' actor Ben Price as her on-screen husband Conrad Gates.
Several other soap stars also appeared in the popular show, including 'EastEnders' actress Gillian Taylforth, and 'Hollyoaks' stars Gary Lucy and Susie Amy, who played husband and wife Kyle Pascoe and Chardonnay Lane-Pascoe.
Tagged in Laila Rouass