Private Life
His oldest son, by his first wife Anna Cropper (1938–2007), is the actor Linus Roache (born 1964). The couple also had a daughter, Vanya (born 1967). They were married from 1961 until divorcing in 1974. From his second marriage, he has a daughter named Verity (born 1981) and a younger son, the actor James Roache, christened William (born 1985). A second daughter, Edwina (born 1982), died aged 18 months from acute bronchial pneumonia in 1984.
Roache's second wife, Sara, died suddenly on 7 February 2009 at their home in Wilmslow, Cheshire, at the age of 58. They had been married since 1978.
Roache is a strong supporter of the Conservative Party. He championed Sir John Major as Britain's greatest post-war prime minister for The Daily Politics. He also supported the now disgraced ex-Conservative MP Neil Hamilton in the 1997 election against Martin Bell. This is in contrast with his character Ken, who holds strong socialist views in the style of a Labour voter. Roache is now patron of the Ilkeston-based production company Sustained Magic Ltd. The company exists to help encourage the arts development within Ilkeston and the East Midlands to help develop new actors.
William Roache is a vegetarian, because, he says, he "doesn't want animals being killed for him". He has also written in his biography about his interest in astrology which he learned by taking a correspondence course from the Faculty of Astrological Studies. He reports impressing quite a few members of the Coronation Street cast by the accuracy with which he read their astrological charts for them.
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