We often see it unfold right in front of our eyes, when normal people become public figures after a spending a number of years on our screens while maintaining interesting personal lives away from their professions. This has been the case with Lisa Faulkner, who began her career at the young age of 16 after creating a name for herself.
Born in Merton, London, the 50-year-old actress was scouted as a model at 16, becoming involved in the industry until she landed her first onscreen role in a romantic drama film, The Lovers.
Years later, Lisa worked her way up from the minor movie role to starring in Channel 4’s hit show Brookside, playing Louise Hope. She’d then rocked up on set wearing scrubs to portray Victoria Merrick between 1999 and 2001 for the medical drama, Holby City.
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(Image: ITV)
Arguably, her most iconic stint was on EastEnders playing character Fi Browning. Joining Walford with her family including her dad and Kathy Beale’s rapist, James Willmott Brown, the family planned to reign terror and take over the Square alongside vengeful Max Branning, who was still vexed over being wrongly imprisoned for killing Lucy Beale.
After a number of acting credits under her name, Lisa ventured into participating in a few reality shows including Big Brother’s Little Brother and Celebrity Masterchef in 2010. It was on the BBC cookery show that Lisa met her now husband John Torode, who fronts the hit series alongside Gregg Wallace.
The famous actress later married John in 2019. It is Lisa’s second marriage after previously being wed to actor Christopher Coghill. The pair ended up divorcing in 2011, but prior to this, adopted a fifteen-month-old girl who was born in 2006. John was also married once before Lisa, to his wife named Jessica.
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Soon after Masterchef ended, their friendship developed into something more. John admitted he was “cowardly” over wanting to ask the actress on a date with him. He said: ‘I’d separated from my wife [Jessica] which was awful, and I was reluctant to approach Lisa face to face as I didn’t fancy the prospect of her saying no, so I wrote her a letter.
“If I’d got no response, it wouldn’t matter. Cowardly? S***, yeah. I’m as cowardly as they get.” John explained that she’d agreed to a date and from there, everything fell into place, gushing that ‘we just really, really like each other’.
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