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Thread: I'm Like Roxy...except I'd Never Wear A Ra-ra Skirt And I Do Know The Father Of My Ki

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    I'm Like Roxy...except I'd Never Wear A Ra-ra Skirt And I Do Know The Father Of My Ki

    Rita Simons has been arriving home from work lately with her face all blotchy and her eyes rimmed with tears.

    "I've looked like the girl from The Exorcist," admits the normally bubbly EastEnders star.

    It's not so surprising when you realise what Rita has been filming.

    Her character, blonde and blueeyed tart-with-a-heart Roxy Mitchell, gives birth two months prematurely in harrowing scenes that we'll see next month.

    The little mite fights for its life. But that's not the only battle going on. There's the small matter of finding out who the father is, a problem that sends Roxy's husband, Sean (the man with the shortest fuse in Walford) into orbit this Christmas.

    "It's shouting one minute, crying the next," says Rita, 31. "No wonder I look such a wreck by the end of the day. Each day has been like an emotional roller coaster."

    By all accounts she gives the performance of her life, which should bode well for the National TV Awards to be announced on Wednesday.

    Rita is nominated in the Best Newcomer category - while her uncle Sir Alan Sugar (married to her dad's sister) is also nominated for Most Popular Factual Programme. "I love The Apprentice," says Rita. "And he loves EastEnders. I always ask him about it when we meet."

    A few tears and blotches aside, life is good for Rita. "I feel so fortunate," she says. 'I never take this role for granted, especially with the horrible state of the world at the moment. I'm so lucky to have a job and one that I love. Then, on top of it, to be nominated. It's incredible."

    Rita loves Roxy too. 'How could I not? She's a part of me now. In many ways, we're very alike. I used to be a party girl like her. But I do like to think I'm a little bit classier.


    "Roxy's attitude is that she doesn't care if she's 31 - she's going to wear that pink ra-ra skirt. She dresses like a teenager. Everything's too young, too tight, too bright, too revealing. But that's not me in real life. Oh, and I do know who's the father of my children!" But Rita can still identify with Roxy's pain.

    In 2005, she found herself pregnant by her husband Theo Silveston. Three months later, her middle already bulging, they went for her first scan.

    A nurse put jelly on Rita's belly and started the scan. "She said, 'Now there's your baby's head.' I felt tears welling. Then she said, totally deadpan, 'And there's the other one.' I didn't understand. 'What do you mean?' I said. 'Has my baby got two heads?'

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    "Theo cracked up laughing. 'No,' he said, 'we're having twins.' I burst out crying. It was such a shock. All my plans were out of the window. Suddenly, everything was double: two prams, two cots and so on."

    Their non-identical twin girls, Jaimee and Maiya, were born in April, 2006. "My husband's a hairdresser with two sisters," says Rita. "He's surrounded by women every day. Even our dog's female. So he wanted at least one son. But I'd have been useless with a boy. I'd have dressed him in pink tutus."

    Because she lives so close to the EastEnders set, Rita's twins were born at the Hertfordshire baby unit where she's just filmed Roxy's more traumatic scenes. "It was weird going back," she says, "and very emotional. I saw parents glued to the incubators containing their precious babies. But it wouldn't have been appropriate, some actress swanning in and boo-hoo-ing all over the place. It was only when I got outside that I gave into my tears." Back home, she told her husband she was broody again. 'He looked at me appalled. "Absolutely not!" he said. And he's right - for the moment. But we might both feel differently in five years."

    The part of Roxy was Rita's first major TV role after 10 years singing in bands. "I was in a group called Tantrum with Ziggy who went on to appear in Big Brother and Duncan James, way before he was in Blue. He's one of my best mates and was an usher at my wedding."

    Then she then joined a band called Girls@Play who had two Top 20 hits. "I thought I could carry on singing after the twins were born. But it was too much," she says. "After one gig which didn't finish until 4am I turned to Theo and told him I couldn't carry on. I was making myself ill. It was time to listen to what my body was telling me."

    Then she heard about an audition for two new roles in East-Enders, sisters Roxy and Ronnie. And she recalls: "Everyone was dolled up - with just one exception. I looked across the room and Sam Janus was dressed down, her nose stuck in her script, just like me.

    "We caught each other's eye and we both said later that it was like love at first sight. When we did our first reading together, the casting director commented on how much warmth there was between us."

    Four weeks after that first audition, the parts were theirs. "I just love Sam," says Rita. "We had very similar upbringings and we were both very alike in our younger days. She's like a big sister to me. She's really held my hand from day one."

    Rita first met Theo 12 years ago. "In my wild-child years, I went out with a lot of wrong 'uns. But then I met Theo and he was such a gent," she says.

    "It was so refreshing, after being a real naughty girl, to find myself with someone lovely and sweet and gentle. I just adored him from the minute we met."

    Nor is Theo threatened by his wife's success or sex appeal. "He's never been the kind of guy to tell me not to wear a short skirt, for instance. In fact, he encourages me because he says he wants to show me off.

    "Ours is an equal relationship. We both wear the trousers in our marriage. Theo's proud of me."

    Jaimee and Maiya are still too young to take pride in their mum's storming performance as Roxy. They like it when they recognise her on screen - but don't always get it right. The other day, they pointed at the telly and shouted, 'Mummy! Mummy!

    "That would have been fine,' says Rita, "except it turned out "to be Judy Finnigan!"

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