Sherrie Hewson, who played Joyce Temple-Savage in ITV’s Benidorm, has had a tough time with love after her 22-year marriage broke down and she was then left devastated by a ‘toyboy love rat’

Benidorm star Sherrie Hewson thought she had found her forever love with a man 20 years her junior, but it turned out he was just another love rat.

Sherrie Hewson, who is famed for her role as Joyce Temple-Savage in the hit ITV sitcom, had previously been married to Ken Boyd for 22 years before discovering his infidelity. Devastated by Ken’s betrayal after he left her for another woman, Sherrie declared: “I want to do without men.”

However, Loose Women star Sherrie’s stance on men changed when she met Richard, a property developer 12 years younger than her, who reignited her youthful spirit. In a 2012 interview with The Mirror, Sherrie gushed about their first encounter in a Leeds bar, saying: “I feel like a teenager again. It’s lovely, fun and a huge compliment that he likes me. He’s not a huge soap follower but he recognised my face.

He said ‘I bet you drink champagne.’ I thought that was cheeky, so I said ‘No, Newcastle Brown Ale, actually.'”. The couple shared many interests, including horse riding, holidays, and theatre visits. Despite her initial doubts about the age gap, Sherrie confessed: “I didn’t think there was any way he’d be interested in me. I thought he was too young and I was being silly. I was with a group of younger women and thought he fancied one of them.”

Sherrie played Joyce Temple-Savage in Benidorm ( 
Image:
ITV)

She has heartbreakingly opened up on her past romances ( 
Image:
Getty Images)
Things fizzled out with Richard, but Sherrie had already set her eyes on a younger ex-pat, Michael, who was 20 years her junior. Their paths crossed in Benidorm at a tapas bar during the filming of a sitcom, and it all went pear-shaped from there. By 2013, Sherrie discovered Michael’s true colours as she confessed to the Daily Mail: “It’s been a tough few months. I feel battered and bruised, physically and emotionally.”

She added: “I thought I’d found a man I could fall in love with but he was a liar and a cheat. I’m not sure my disastrous love life can ever be mended.” She noticed that the staff at the restaurant, where she had become a regular, began acting oddly around her, hinting that something was amiss. Sherrie recounted: “Sometimes when I stopped by, Michael wasn’t there. One of them would ring him and he’d come rushing over. I knew something was wrong, so one day I confronted him.”

The actress revealed: “He didn’t try to lie. He said he had a wife and two kids further along the coast but that he spent very little time there and they had grown apart. As soon as I heard ‘wife’, that was it. I’m not saying I’ve given up totally but it’s going to be a long time before anyone will convince me to try dating again.”