The soap legend, who plays the iconic EastEnders character Cindy Beale, explained that she had been engaged several times but never thought she would ever get married
Michelle Collins will always be known for her iconic portrayal of Cindy Beale in EastEnders.
The actress has enjoyed a long and successful career, which has also spilled over into her personal life.
She shared that she found love with her husband after believing that she would never get married.
Early life
Michelle was born on 28 May 1962, making her 62 years old. She is originally from Hackney in London, England.
The actress and her older sister, named Vicki, were born to a Welsh mother and an English father of Flemish heritage.
She trained at the Royal Court Activists and Cockpit Youth Theatre from 14 years old and attended Kingsway Princeton College, where she studied drama and theatre at O/A-level.
Acting career
Michelle’s first role was in Mikhail Bulgakov’s The Crimson Island at the Gate Theatre.
However, her career changed trajectory after she performed in the 1978 video for the Squeeze song ‘Cool For Cats’, where she was a backing singer for Mari Wilson and the Wilsations.
The band toured the country for 18 months, but broke up in 1982.
Michelle returned to acting with the help of her friend, Tim Roth, and starred in a musical with Gary Hutton and Gary Shail.
While filming the BBC play Pressures in 1988, she was asked by an EastEnders producer to audition for the role of Cindy Beale.
The character was originally meant to star in 11 episodes, but her contract was extended after being a massive hit with viewers.
The soap’s villain played Ian Beale’s unfaithful wife between 1988 and 1998, when she died in childbirth.
After leaving Watford, she acted in ITV ’s Daylight Robbery, three series of Two Thousand Acres of Sky and two series of the BBC series Sunburn. She sang the theme song and it hit number 28 in the UK Singles Chart in 1999.
Michelle made her soap return in 2011, playing Stella Price, the new landlady of the Rovers Return pub, in Coronation Street. Her last episode was aired on 2 April 2014.
After a 25-year absence from EastEnders, the soap star made her return to the show in 2023. It was announced at the time that she would return from the dead. Instead of dying, she had entered a witness protection programme and had taken on the identity of ‘Rose Knight’ – the wife of George Knight and the mother of Gina and Anna.
Relationship
Michelle was in a relationship with Fabrizio Tassalini and they welcomed a daughter named Maia Rose on 29 September 1996.
The couple parted ways in the late 1990s and remained friends until his passing from cancer in 2014.
In April 2022, she announced that she was engaged to her partner of 10 years, Mike Davidson.
Michelle opened up about the proposal, sharing that the reason Mike popped the question was very meaningful as he had previously said he didn’t want to get married.
“I did meet the right person,” she said. “I never thought I would ever get married. I’ve been engaged a few times. He also said that he would never get married. ”
She continued: “He said: ‘With your mum gone, I knew how much she meant to you and I wanted to make you feel safe and look after you,” she told the How To Be 60 podcast.
“It was such a beautiful thing to say, a lovely thing to say,” she said. “I suppose I do feel safe. It’s a case of somebody I can do nothing with. Somebody that I can just not be me and not worry that he thinks I’m boring or that I think he’s boring – somebody I can be bored with.”
She added: “I think that’s a true partner. We’re very, very different people, but I think it’s the ying and the yang and that’s what makes us tick.
“He’s very, very supportive. He’s not in the industry, which is really great. He’s kind of normal, but can you be normal being married to me? I don’t think you can be. You’ve got to be a very tolerant person.”
Michelle and Mike tied the knot in August 2022 in London surrounded by friends and family, including Adam Woodyatt.
She has explained that her husband doesn’t love being online in a touching birthday tribute to him in April.
The soap star wrote: “#happybirthday #magicmike .#husband Life isn’t easy but you make it easier. #loveyou most importantly. You make me smile. #welovecountrymusic ! @keithurban @pink You won’t find him hates social media!”
