Gillian Taylforth: Wild Life at 70!

She was once the most talked-about woman in soap.

Millions watched star Gillian Taylforth portray Kathy Beale, an Albert Square stalwart whose rape by wine bar owner James Willmott-Brown was one of the most viewed story lines in the history of the show.

Her life has been controversial away from the cameras too, most notoriously when, in 1992, Gillian – Gilly to her friends – was caught performing a sex act on her then fiance while parked on an A1 slip road.

Later, her colourful romantic life included an engagement to drug baron Dave Fairbairn.

I can reveal that, today, 70-year-old Gillian is refusing to ‘give in’ to being a pensioner. She is – according to some sources – wilder than ever.

‘Gilly has always been the one to really get the party started,’ says a friend of the star, who continues to appear in EastEnders (following an earlier 15-year break from the show).

‘Her friends and colleagues all joke how the party hasn’t kicked off until she turns up.

‘Gilly will always be the first on the dance floor and always the last to leave. She is a party girl through and through.

‘There have been times when she has even been politely told by security to call it a night. She is a hoot and so much fun to be around, the fact she is 70 makes no difference to her whatsoever.’

While the phrase ‘get outta my pub’ will forever be associated with Albert Square, Gillian herself has no intention of leaving the boozer.

She is routinely one of the last to depart glitzy awards celebrations.

Ahead of celebrating her milestone birthday last year, the actress launched a new skin-care brand, Skin GT, which pals say is an attempt to make the most of the compliments she has long received for her apparently ageless complexion.

In documents lodged at Companies House and seen by The Daily Mail, Gillian appears to be firmly in control of the brand.

She is named as the sole director of the company, which has a registered address at a modest detached house on a quiet estate in Pinner, north-west London.

But it is the pictures which will surprise – and disconcert – Gillian’s fans.

The images of Gillian appear to be heavily airbrushed on both the official GT website and various social media promotions.

There’s no suggestion she’s trying to deceive prospective customers, but the somewhat embarrassing photographs do suggest that, instead of ageing gracefully, Gillian may be trying to turn back the clock a little too far.

The GT website emphasises that actress herself was directly involved in creating the products, which include a cleanser, SPF and serums.

‘Gillian soft-launched GT with family and friends and those in the beauty industry,’ a source tells me. ‘In recent months, she has been using social media to build the brand – which will hopefully result in sales.

‘Gillian has never been one for social media but has created a personal and business Instagram account with the sole focus of building followers for GT.’

The accounts for her first year of trading are not due until March next year.

Despite her party lifestyle, Gillian appears to be the picture of health.

She has previously boasted about her diet and exercise regime, saying that working out gives her an ‘adrenaline rush’. Gillian has a treadmill, rowing machines and a Peloton bike at home.

She has also spoken about the importance of removing her makeup before going to sleep, telling a magazine how, in her twenties, she would have to ‘hold on to the sink to take it off’ following wild nights out.

Pals say the soap matriarch’s new business venture is a way to reinvent herself.

‘It really seems like Gilly is now living for herself and it is so great to see,’ says a source.

‘She might like a party. She has chased men throughout her life, or enjoyed them chasing her. Those who know her often say her trouble has been men.’

This was never more strikingly the case than when she was accused of performing that public sex act on fiance Geoff Knights.

It was 1992 and the couple, who shared two children together, were on their way back from the races when Knights reportedly got an ‘urge’.

The fact that they’d been stopped by the police was reported in a red top newspaper.

Gillian and Geoff Knights denied this version of events – claiming the actress had been managing Knights’s stomach because of abdominal problems – but they failed in their bid to sue the paper.

She was then at the height of her fame and the coverage ran for weeks.

Gillian’s partnership with Knights lasted for 23 turbulent years before they finally split in 2009. Relations subsequently soured and Knights was charged with two offences of breaching a non-molestation order.

He had been accused of harassing and pestering Gillian with calls and text messages. Legal proceedings ended with his death in 2013 from stomach cancer.

One year earlier, Gillian had started a relationship with ex-stockbroker Dave Fairbairn. There was more than a whiff of controversy about him, too.

Fairbairn had been sentenced to seven years in jail in 2003 for plotting to important a giant haul of ectstasy, described at the time as one of the biggest ever seized in Britain.

And in 2015, the actress was banned from driving for two years. When stopped, apparently intoxicated, and put in handcuffs, she remarked to an officer: ‘Aren’t these like the plastic ones we used on The Bill?’

Gillian, who had played the role of Sergeant Nikki Wright on the hit TV series, pleaded guilty to drink driving, but tried to overturn a driving ban arguing that she needed her licence to ferry Fairbairn to his cancer treatment.

The court refused, however, and she was disqualified for 24 months, ordered to pay a £3,500 fine plus £720 costs and a £120 government surcharge.