EastEnders' Heather Trott was a loveable character on our screens for five years.
The BBC soap star, played by Cheryl Fergison, won viewers' hearts as Shirley Carter's best friend and an unlucky-in-love legend. That was until she was cruelly killed off in a brutal way.
Ben Mitchell was the culprit of Heather's demise as he walloped her over the head with a picture frame, leaving her for dead. After five years of playing the George-Michael obsessed character, Heather's time on the BBC soap was up.
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But while the on-screen character didn't seem to have luck on her side, the actress who played her is worlds apart in real life. Cheryl Fergison has reminded the world that Heather Trott is not real.
She is currently close to celebrating her 11th wedding anniversary to a Moroccan toyboy who is 21 years her junior. The actress fell for her second husband online in 2010, travelled to his hometown of Agadir, Morocco, and had married him by June 2011.
However, some fans unfairly reacted as if gullible ‘Hev’ had just got herself in another jam. Some suggested that her partner, Yassine el Jamouni, was a golddigger.
Speaking of the negative comments received about her relationship, Cheryl said: "My son Alex asked his Alexa: ‘Tell me a fact about Cheryl Fergison’. And Alexa goes: ‘Cheryl Fergison is married to a goatherd from Morocco.’ Why’s that the first fact that comes up? And it’s wrong!
"We don’t have any goats. We’ve never had any goats near us! But that’s the first thing people say. I find it really difficult to pin down why - There’s racism, sexism, ageism - all the isms are there when people talk about our relationship.
"The world has become so cynical. People think it’s got to be a con, it’s got to be a problem. But I say, ‘It hasn’t got to be anything. Just stop it!’"
She claimed that the comments don't affect the couple any more as they have learnt not to take any notice. She said: "It seems to be quite cool for the men, like Mick Jagger, to date younger. And it seems okay for them to have someone else two years later. But people don’t give any kudos to a woman dating someone younger, even though we’ve been together 11 years.
"Well we don’t care. It really is absolutely water off a duck’s back to us now. I just feel sorry for them, that they need to criticise our life."
Now, a decade after leaving EastEnders, Cheryl has recently made an appearance in a Netflix hit. In the show, she is miles apart from her soapland alter ego.
Catherine Tate's Hard Cell is a prison comedy which sees Cheryl appear as a version of herself. She is on it helping inmates do a musical and shocks viewers as she soon drops a very un-Heather C-bomb.
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