Callard: 'Lover cheated when I had cancer'

Bev Callard has reportedly revealed that her husband cheated with a schoolgirl while she battled cancer.

Callard, who plays Liz McDonald on Coronation Street, underwent a hysterectomy in 1991 after doctors found cancerous cells in her cervix. It was while she was recovering from the operation that a friend told her that Steve Callard, who is eight years her junior, was having an affair.

The actress confronted her husband and he denied it, but the girl involved confessed that they had slept together. "Steve talks to me. I know you've had a hysterectomy and couldn't have sex for six weeks. He needed somebody to talk to. Somebody his own age," the youngster said.

Callard kicked her partner out, only to take him back a short while later. However, she eventually started divorce proceedings when a friend tipped her off that he was cheating again.

"I felt angry, devastated and stunned all at once. The other woman was a 19-year-old Russian girl. I spoke to my solicitor in London. This time it was the end. I wanted a divorce," said Callard.

The revelation is made in her book Unbroken, extracts of which are being published in the News Of The World.