Ashley Walters has said the biggest regret of his life is when his children saw him being arrested.
The Top Boy actor, 41, opened up about his life in a candid chat for the BBC’s Louis Theroux Interviews where he spoke about his run ins with the law.
Ashley recalled how he once had a gun pulled on him while he was carrying his son Shayon, who is now 22, after he made a comment about someone copying his lyrics on the radio.
Following the incident, father-of-eight Ashley spent £1,300 on a pistol in order to ‘protect himself’.
However in 2002, the actor was arrested when he lost his temper in a disagreement with a traffic warden and said: ‘I’m going to shoot you.’
Ashley Walters has said the biggest regret of his life is when his children saw him being arrested
The TV star’s the partner Natalie Williams and their children Shayon and China , now 21, saw him being handcuffed and taken away by police
The TV star’s the partner Natalie Williams and their children Shayon and China, now 21, saw him being handcuffed and taken away by police.
Recalling the incident, he said: ‘I wasn’t actually going to shoot. I weren’t willing to risk my liberty over shooting a traffic warden. But I mean, I made my comments, I said what I said.
‘It was horrific. My biggest regret is that my kids were there. It was a big part of my life,’ he admits. ‘I didn’t ever want to go back to prison.’
Ashley shares Shayon and Panerai, 19, and daughter China with his former partner Natalie Williams.
The Netflix star also has two young daughters Antonia and Ashleigh with another unnamed woman, while he raises Amiaya-Love and River and a stepson with his wife of seven years, actress Danielle Isaie.
Ashley, who ended up serving 18 months in prison, said he regretted following in his convict father’s footsteps.
The actor, from Peckham in south East London, was raised by his mother Pamela while his father was in and out of prison.
He joined the So Solid Crew when he was 16 and established himself as Asher D.
The actor was arrested in 2002 when he lost his temper in a disagreement with a traffic warden and said: ‘I’m going to shoot you’
Ashley, who ended up serving 18 months in prison, said he regretted following in his convict father’s footsteps (Kano pictured as Sully and Ashley Walters as Dushane on the show)
Recalling his youth, he said: ‘We live in a place where if young people are not fully occupied, then what are they doing? They’re hanging around, maybe getting themselves into trouble.
‘It was only when I got to maybe 16, I changed, as a kid. In those years is when I went out and I got in trouble, and joined So Solid.
‘I wasn’t rebelling against my mum, but it was rebelling against all of those things that she’d built up for me and how safe she kept me… I didn’t grow up rich, but I had no reason to sell drugs or to be out on the street.
‘But I was walking with some real gangsters at the time, so it was easy for me to become a target.’
