The brother of EastEnders actress Patsy Palmer has revealed that he is checking himself into rehab, two years after he was released from prison.
Patsy’s brother Albert Harris, 56, has struggled with heroin addiction since he was 12 years old and although he has been clean for a year, he wants to be rid of his need for methadone.
Albert was released from prison in 2022 after serving a five-year sentence for armed robbery in London. He was served the same length of sentence in 2010 for the same offence in Bristol.
The siblings have not spoke in a year due to Patsy, 51, having lived State side since 2014, but Albert hopes to get better so that he can see her and ‘make our mum proud,’ he told The Mirror on Saturday.
Patsy and Albert have ‘always been close,’ he said, but the distance and his convictions have made seeing each other a challenge.
The brother of EastEnders actress Patsy Palmer has revealed that he is checking himself into rehab, two years after he was released from prison
‘I’m stuck on this medication but soon I will be going in somewhere and I’ll have that freedom back and can start a new life,’ Albert said.
He has decided that he would like to spend the next section of his life as a volunteer or counsellor to help people battle addiction.
Albert, who lives on his own in a one-bedroom apartment, believes that change is possible at any age, and that with his experience of addiction he can help others overcome it.
He started taking methadone in prison after he was given it to help with the pain after surgery to remove a tumour on his spine.
But it makes him feel tired and leaves him sitting on the sofa all day watching TV. He said: ‘I’m a slave to the chemist and I can’t get a job while I’m on it.’
Albert, who attends Narcotics Anonymous multiple times a week, admitted that it can be challenging when people find out he is on methadone and learn of his prison stints.
‘But it stops my cravings and prevents me from going into that dark world, being around those people and committing crimes,’ he said.
He has taken heroin twice since leaving prison but has been clean for a year and has vowed to continue going to meetings as if he believes he is better he may relapse.
Albert Harris was released from prison in 2022 after serving a five-year sentence for armed robbery in London
Patsy was seen back on screens earlier this month as Bianca, after first hitting screens in 1993 before Patsy quit the soap in 1999
Taking the credit for his famous sister’s first acting gig, Albert says it was he who got her into theatre after seeing an advert for Anna Scher Theatre in Islington in a newspaper.
And he was along for the ride for a while, as both bagged roles together in Joseph and His Technicolour Dreamcoat.
Raised by their dressmaker mother after she split up with their taxi-driver father, Albert and Patsy were close. Their older brother Harry moved up and the pair lived at home with their mother for another four years.
Albert wants to make his sister, who has spent £12,000 trying to help him kick the habit, proud and see her again once he is clean.
The actress herself has struggled with drug abuse throughout her life, much like her brother.
In her autobiography, Patsy revealed she had her first drink at eight years old and was regularly smoking cannabis by age 11.
Patsy was seen back on screens earlier this month as Bianca, when she was visited by her step-daughter Whitney Dean (Shona McGarty) in Milton Keynes.
Bianca first hit screens in 1993 before Patsy quit the soap in 1999 to spend more time with her family.
She returned to screens in 2002 for a special and made further returns in 2009 and 2019, before her upcoming comeback.
