Denise Welch describes a ‘renaissance’ as acting, fashion and sobriety converge

Denise Welch says she is enjoying a “renaissance” after returning earlier this month to Waterloo Road as Steph Haydock following a 15‑year absence, and that acting and fashion have come to the fore in her career. The Guardian reports Welch, 67, has new credits including the Russell T Davies drama Tip Toe, the Channel 4 sitcom Stepping Up and the adaptation of Graham Norton’s novel Forever Home.

The piece says she has also become a fashion favourite, featuring in i‑D last month and working as a party correspondent for GQ in November, and that she has deliberately assembled a stylist, hairdresser and publicist to change direction. The article records a long history of mental‑health struggles: Welch says she has lived with severe postnatal depression for 36 years, was diagnosed with ADHD four years ago, and that she turned to alcohol and cocaine in her late 30s before becoming sober.

She told the paper she is 14 years sober, and the piece says she and her husband, Lincoln Townley, are now into their 15th year of sobriety. Welch describes intense press intrusion during her periods of addiction, including private investigators planting listening devices in hotel rooms, and says the police presented a spreadsheet of evidence.

The Guardian reports that Graham Johnson, formerly of the Sunday Mirror, came forward about the hacking, and that Welch received compensation from a number of news organisations; the article says those who ordered the hacking have not been to court.

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