STREET MADE MY HUSBAND A BULLYING MONSTER
The wife of sacked Coronation Street star Bruce Jones has revealed how her marriage turned into a nightmare after years of physical and mental abuse from the drunk hellraiser.
Exclusive by David Jeffs, Assistant Editor
4 November 2007
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Speaking for the first time about her stormy 24 years with the man known to millions of soap fans as loud-mouthed lout Les Battersby, Sandra Jones confessed: "Corrie turned him into an absolute monster. I really hated him for what he had become. The physical and mental abuse I suffered drove me to the brink of a breakdown. Lesser women would have crumbled. It would get to the point where I would shake like a leaf with fear when I heard him put the key in the door after a long night down the pub. What kind of marriage is that?"
Sandra, 53, revealed how her harddrinking husband: Flew into violent rages after long boozy sessions in the pub with mates. Terrified her so much she walked out on their marriage twice in the middle of the night to flee his foul temper. Humiliated her with a string of cruel insults despite Sandra staying loyally by his side. Drove her on to anti-depressants to cope with his wild mood swings.
Speaking candidly about Bruce, 54, who played layabout Les for 10 years until he was dumped last summer following a booze and racism scandal, Sandra said: "Basically I was married to the real-life Les Battersby during his time in the show. After work he'd be straight down the pub and that's when problems started. Some nights he wouldn't come home until the early hours. Like the loyal or perhaps foolish wife I'd stay up and wait for him and that's when he'd kick off in true Battersby style."
"Once through the door all his aggression and stress would explode. He would use any excuse to start a fight with me - complain about the food I'd cooked for him or the state of the house. Usually he'd start pushing and shoving me with his breath stinking of booze. On other occasions he'd grab my arm tightly and start shaking me as I tried to calm him down. I could see the wild rage and anger in his eyes. It was like he was a man possessed. A couple of times he's punched me on the side of the head when he's been out of it on booze. They weren't hard punches but heavy enough to make my head spin. Next day he would remember nothing about it."
"Once Bruce clipped me on the face with his hands and I went running into another room and locked the door to get away from him I was that scared. I would only come out when he had calmed down or collapsed on the bed. Another thing he liked to do was throw stuff around the house, books, cups, you name it. When he was like this I could feel my whole body convulsing with fear. The next morning of course it was like the real Bruce I'd first met and fallen in love with had come back to me. He'd be all sweetness and light, begging for forgiveness."
During his decade in the show, the twice-married father of four was dogged with stories of his heavy drinking. A year after joining the show he pleaded guilty to drink driving after being found more than twice over the limit. Previously convicted of the same offence in 1992, he was banned from driving for three years. And in 2000 he spent three weeks in rehab at The Priory where he confessed to turning to the bottle to deal with the pressures of being one of Britain's most recognisable soap stars.
Earlier this year Bruce, who earned £120,000 a year, admitted: "The pressure the show put me and my marriage under is huge. If Sandra had had her way, I would have left the show five years ago." Sandra, speaking at their smart home in Alderley Edge, Cheshire, agreed. She said: "Coronation Street turned Bruce into a bullying control freak. He simply wasn't prepared for the level of attention and pressure he would be put under. Ok, he was earning great money and had all the trappings of fame but it was destroying the marriage I had worked so hard at. I hated him for the way he had become. I begged him to quit but at the same time I also knew he loved the job."
"A lot of my friends have told me I was mad to stick by him especially when I ran off to stay with them my face red raw with tears after yet another late night bust-up. On two occasions I walked out in the middle of the night still in my night-dress to escape his foul temper. If he wasn't getting physically abusive he'd stand in front of me saying things with a cruel sneer like 'What am I doing with someone like you', or 'You are not worthy of me'."
And in a further twist of the knife he'd torment Sandra with boasts about all the women who wanted to have sex with him. "Bruce would say things like he could have any bird he wanted and why was he hanging around with someone like me."
Twice-married Sandra herself saw the effect his soap fame had on women. She recalled: "Once we were doing a personal appearance in a club in Sheffield and I heard two girls in their twenties say in front of me, 'I'm going to have Bruce's babies'. Women would throw themselves at him all the time because of who he was. Let's face it, if he wasn't a famous soap star women wouldn't give him a second glance."
After Bruce came out of The Priory, Sandra begged him to seek marriage guidance but he refused. His wife said: "Bruce didn't think there was a problem but I was close to a breakdown, depressed and on antidepressants. When he wasn't working or drinking he'd be sitting around the house like a zombie refusing to do everyday things like shopping and housework."
But following Bruce's shock dismissal from the Street in May, the couple are now trying to rebuild their marriage. Sandra said: "He still likes a drink but nothing like on the scale he used to. We are more like a normal married couple again." Bruce told The People: "Lesser women would have walked out on me long ago. I wasn't proud of the way I was then. Sandra wouldn't know what mood I would be coming home in and I wouldn't know myself. I wouldn't say I was physically abusive. It was a just a 'get out of my way' kind of thing because I wanted to be on my own. I'd just push her away. I hated myself sometimes and would wake up in the morning questioning myself 'Why?' "
Bruce stars in Jack and the Beanstalk next month in Westonsuper-Mare and intends to take Sandra with him for the duration of the panto. He said: "We are going to be staying in a hotel together. "I've got a lot of making up to do to Sandra after everything that has gone on. The Les Battersby of old both on and off the camera is a thing of the past, I promise." Sandra added: "I hope my story gives other women who find themselves in my situation hope. Bruce now knows if he ever turns back to his old ways our marriage will be history for good. Leaving Corrie was the best thing to happen to us."
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