Bill Roache has opened up about his daughter Vanya's death, revealing that he managed to get over the grief "in just a few days". The Coronation Street actor's eldest daughter died from liver failure, aged just 50, in March. Speaking about the mourning process, the soap star told Spirit & Destiny magazine: "If I grieve, it's because I miss her and that's negative. And where she is, she'll pick up on that, so I send her my love. After the death of the physical body, the soul returns to heaven, which is our eternal home. Vanya has gone to a far better, happier place, and I don't need to grieve for her."
Bill Roache sadly lost his daughter Vanya in March
He added: "Of course, for the first few days after her death, it was natural to grieve, but within a week I got over it because I know she's in a beautiful place reunited with other loved ones. Death is something we can look forward to because we'll be going back to our eternal home and will be closer to source, to love." Bill, who is the longest running soap actor having played Ken Barlow on Corrie since 1960, took ten days off from filming commitments in March.
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It is the third time Bill has lost a close family member, following the sudden death of his second wife Sarah Mottram in 2009, at the age of 58. The couple's daughter Edwina died from pneumonia at just 18 months, in 1984. Vanya was Bill's eldest daughter from his first marriage to ex-wife Anna Cropper. The former couple, who were married from 1961 until 1974, are also parents to a son, actor Linus Roache. Bill married his second wife Sarah in 1978. They welcomed daughter Verity (born 1981) and son James, christened William (born 1985). Their third child, little Edwina, passed away from acute bronchial pneumonia.