Coronation Street's Julie Goodyear's heartbreaking love life - losing soulmate girlfriend, 11-year proposal and 'best of a bad bunch'

Julie Goodyear, the Coronation Street legend who played Bet Lynch in the ITV soap for more than 25 years, has experienced a heartbreaking loss. She was married four times but never to her 'soulmate'.

Julie, 81, lost her former girlfriend and PA, Janet Ross, to cancer in 2012. Janet was one of Julie's first female partners and also a close friend. In 2013, Julie shared with Piers Morgan on Life Stories: "She and I became soulmates. I don't know if you've ever found that. I hadn't, before or since.

"When my mother came to the last three months of her life, Janet Ross was like a rock. You don't often find mates like that. Incredible." Julie continued: "Two years ago I received a phone call, from Janet and she said, 'I need to talk to you, Julie.' I was there within an hour. And we were sitting in her back garden. She said, 'You know I almost got the all-clear.' I said, 'Yes,' She said, 'Well, it's back.'".

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"My soulmate, and it was her turn now? After everything she'd done for me, with my mum and in my life. We're not talking sex, we're talking good people, real people, kind people. And she died.", reports the Mirror.

Julie and Janet lived together until Julie started dating Duncan Ford, a taxi driver who left his wife and son for her. Julie, a few years later, got married to Richard Skrob, an airline executive. However, their long-distance relationship ended after just 21 months.

In 2007, she married Scott Brand, who she met when he delivered plaster to her house. She had been hesitant to marry him for over a decade. Scott, who is 26 years younger than Julie