Coronation Street actor Bill Roache has opened up about losing his daughter earlier this year, saying the pain is "unbearable".
The actor's daughter with his first wife Anna Cropper, Vanya, died at the age of 50 in March of this year.
Speaking to The Mirror, Roache recalled the heartbreaking circumstances in which his daughter passed away, revealing that he had a car accident while on his way to see her which prevented him from saying his final goodbyes.
The 86-year-old actor said he received a text message while filming on the soap saying that Vanya was seriously ill.
Roache says he drove the nearly 300-mile journey from Manchester to Chichester, West Sussex, via London where he picked up actor son Will. They were 15 minutes away from the hospital where Vanya was when the sat-nav took them down a country road covered in snow.
"The car just went straight on, smashed a sign, went over a traffic island and hit a hedgerow, smashing the whole front of the car," he said. "Recovery said they couldn't get out for five hours. By the time I got to her it was too late."
The actor, who has played Ken Barlow in Corrie since 1960, says it was "awful" not being able to say goodbye to his daughter, but added that he prefers to reflect on the "happier times" they shared.
"I take some comfort in now knowing she is in a better place and at peace," he said. "Just three weeks before we'd been down and had a lovely time. We had a sing-song..."
This is not the first time the actor has lost a child. In 1983, he and and his wife Sara Roache, who died suddenly in 2009, lost their daughter Edwina aged 18 months to pneumonia.
