Personal Life
Her parents' marriage was not legal as her father (Tom Manfield) was a bigamist, her mother later remarried (Richard Pilkington). Pat took her step-father's surname. Her love life was fodder for tabloid stories. Her first marriage was to Peter Marsh, an actor. They married in Bradford Cathedral; the marriage lasted only a year. In 1972, she married her Coronation Street co-star Alan Browning, who had alcohol related problems and died from liver failure in 1979.
Later she married actor Antony Booth. Through this final marriage, Phoenix became mother-in-law to the then unknown back bencher Tony Blair who eleven years after her death became British Prime Minister. Pat campaigned for Blair in the 1983 General Election helping him win his first seat in a landslide majority. She also campaigned for Cherie Blair who came second in the safe Conservative seat Tatton. She was a lifelong supporter of the Labour Party and a practising Roman Catholic.
She also owned the Navigation Inn, a pub in the village of Buxworth, in the Peak District.
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Famous quotes related to personal life:
“The dialectic between change and continuity is a painful but deeply instructive one, in personal life as in the life of a people. To ‘see the light’ too often has meant rejecting the treasures found in darkness.”
—Adrienne Rich (b. 1929)