EastEnders Tony King stars life – unrecognisable, dead career and famous ex

EastEnders actor Chris Coghill played peadophile Tony King from 2008 until 2009.

Horrified fans of the BBC One soap watched as he lured 15-year-old Whitney Dean into a sexual relationship while dating her step-mum Bianca Jackson (Patsy Palmer). The storyline is set to be revisited this week as Whitney and her partner Zack Hudson (James Farrar) plan to adopt a baby.

During a meeting, Whitney's dark past with Tony comes up and she's forced to talk about the abuse she received at the hands of evil Tony over a decade ago. Since leaving Walford, Chris has appeared ITV drama The Bay, BBC medical series Casualty as well as rival soap Hollyoaks Later.

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As Whitney recalls her past relationship with Tony, Daily Star takes a look inside the life of the actor including his famous ex-wife and what he looks like now.

Famous ex-wife

Soap star Chris was married to actress and TV chef Lisa Faulkner after meeting when they starred in BBC Three sitcom Burn It together. They tied the knot in April 2005 and adopted a daughter named Billie-May together.

However, they split in 2011 and Lisa went on to marry MasterChef judge John Torode in 2019 after she appeared on the cooking show as a contestant and won.

After his divorce, Chris married Rosalind Halsread, who is also an actress and his featured in Andor, Shakespeare & Hathaway: Private Investigators, and The Trial of Christine Keeler., Both stars are incredibly private, and have not spoken about their marriage in public.

Family life

Chris regularly shares pictures of his daughter Billie-May on his official Instagram page and the pair maintain a close relationship. Lisa had three failed rounds of IVF before they decided to adopt.

Lisa said that she and Chris only had six weeks to prepare for Billie to move in with them as within a matter of weeks they were: "matched." The frantic race to prepare the home led to her feeling "excited and scared" but she was adds being an adopter is the "most incredible feeling."

She has always been open about her fertility struggles after suffering from an ectopic pregnancy, that led to her having surgery to have one of her fallopian tubes removed.

'Dead career'

Chris previously said that his role as paedophile Tony had a negative impact on his career.

He told The Sun: "EastEnders killed my career a bit. I play wrong 'uns in everything! When I got the script for this I was like, 'Oh, he’s really nice, let’s look at the next episode. Oh, he's still really nice, and the next one – oh, gosh he’s still really nice!'

He added: "As a direct result of that storyline, about 10 people said, 'That happened to me', and went to the police and there have been quite a few convictions. Being an actor doesn’t really change people’s lives but without being a w****r, that did. And I’m proud of that."

The storyline ended with Tony being convicted in court after Whitney finally came clean about the abuse. The character later committed suicide while inside.

Unrecognisable

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14 years after playing Tony and Chris looks very different. In October 2022, he logged into Instagram to show off his new look sporting a bushy beard and a buzz cut. Alongside a selfie he took while travelling on a train, the TV star wrote: "Feel like I’ve worn the wrong coat to go into town on the night everyone is pretending it’s Halloween. To be clear I have not come out intentionally looking like Nosferatu. Or Uncle Fester for that matter. #accidentalmonster #amateurdrinkersnight

His post caught the attention of viewers, with some rushing to leave a message for Chris in the comment section. One fan penned: "Minimal effort maximum effect, I’d have moved carriage!", someone else agreed: "You do look scary."

EastEnders airs Monday to Thursday on BBC One and BBC iPlayer at 7.30pm

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