Corrie’s Linda Baldwin star gave up fame after affair with gangster | Celebrity News | Showbiz and television

Jacqueline Chadwick is best known for her roles in Coronation Street and Emmerdale, but has pursued a different career since turning her back on acting.

Famous for her role as Linda Baldwin between 1998 and 2001 and previously as Tina Dingle in Emmerdale, the actress has since chosen a quieter life away from the soap scene.

Jacqueline, 48, had a daughter named Alexandra in 1997, which influenced her decision to retire from the public eye. The father, Christopher Stone, was Birmingham’s notorious gang leader, whom Jacqueline was desperate to distance from her child.

Despite his role as Alexandra’s father, Jacqueline kept Christopher’s name off the birth certificate and assured her friends at the time: “Chris and I are finished. I know he’s Alexandra’s father, but there’s no way he’s going to play dad.”

However, she admitted that having her first child made her a “recluse.” Speaking to The Mirror, she said: “I was too infatuated with her. There was nothing else in my life. I was so in love with her that I didn’t go out for a year. I didn’t even go out for my girlfriend’s birthday.

“I became a hermit and suddenly all I wanted to do was be with her. This was unhealthy for her and me. Before she was born I loved drinking and partying, but I changed overnight.”

Jacqueline continued: I would say, ‘Oh no, the baby needs me.’ It was stupid. The baby got tired of me when he was one year old. She didn’t want to look at me. My mother would always say, ‘Do you leave the baby alone?’ All you do is kiss her’.”

Jacqueline later married Simon Chadwick in 2001 and they have another child together. Having left the iconic cobbles of ITV’s Coronation Street 23 years ago, Jacqueline is now almost unrecognizable, having swapped the spotlight for a life dedicated to writing family and crime novels.

In a stark contrast to her days as a soap actress, Jacqueline now sports a chic short blonde bob, ditching her previous dark locks and opting for a modern, bespectacled aesthetic, reports the Daily Star.

Since leaving Corrie in 2001, Jacqueline has had no film roles. However, in 2004, she decided to start a theater workshop called The Jacqueline Chadwick Academy of Performing Arts.

She opened two acting schools, one in her hometown of Stirling and another in British Columbia, Canada. But in 2016, Jacqueline changed careers again and began writing crime novels. In 2017 she published her first book, In The Still.

Jacqueline confessed: “When I started doing soaps there was no celebrity and your private life was pretty much your own. That changed in the noughties when the phenomenon of celebrity emerged.”

“After having my two children, I decided it was time to stop acting as I didn’t want them to be thrust into the limelight because of me. I wanted to focus on things that were really important as a wife and mother.”

“Turning to writing came naturally to me. For as long as I can remember, I have always kept myself busy writing in between acting jobs and even in breaks between scenes.”