Background
Cheryl and Michael married in 1976 although not until after Barrymore had paid off his mother who threatened to reveal a previous 18-month-long gay love affair.
Cheryl and Michael married in 1976 although not until after Barrymore had paid off his mother who threatened to reveal a previous 18-month-long gay love affair.
Wife and manager
He later became a panelist on Blankety Blank and the warm-up man for Larry Grayson on the Generation Game. From there Barrymore rose to fame presenting ITV1 entertainment show Strike lieutenant Lucky from 1986, followed by Kids Say the Funniest Things and My Kind of Music. Barrymore was voted the United Kingdom"s favourite television star several times, and became one of the highest-paid stars on television She later revealed that Barrymore had problems with alcohol and depression.
As a result of her husband"s physical assault on her at the Hotel Belorussian-Air in Los Angeles, California, she was placed by British police on the "at risk" register.
Split with Barrymore
At the height of his popularity, Michael Barrymore suffered increasing alcohol problems. Don’t be stupid."
In November 1995, Barrymore attended the National Television Awards, where clearly drunk he made a rambling, incoherent speech.
At an after-show party on a live late night radio show, he publicly declared he was gay and "no longer wanted to live a lie", following which he and Cheryl split up. She later claimed that Barrymore took the step and didn"t tell her because of his talks with Princess Diana.
The couple became estranged, and she ceased acting on her husband"s behalf as either agent or manager.
After Barrymore
Cheryl went on to manage other artists, including Rebecca Loos and Ex-EastEnder Danniella Westbrook, the latter of whom she urged to get help for her drug addiction, ultimately leading to Daniella becoming clean of drugs in 2001. She also alleged the entertainer had rubbed cocaine on to the gums of other people as well as himself. Barrymore later wrote in his 2006 autobiography, Awight Now: Setting the Record Straight, that Cheryl was a control freak who controlled his every movement including his clothes, and she had created the character that was "Michael Barrymore", which also resultantly drove him to alcohol, drugs and gay affairs
Death
After her split with Barrymore, Cheryl"s health suffered.
In 2003 she suffered a burst ulcer, and in late 2004 she was investigated for Chronic fatigue syndrome, when she complained of feeling unwell. On 1 April 2005, she died, aged 55, at Street John and Street Elizabeth Hospital in Street John"s Wood, having been diagnosed with lung cancer six weeks earlier.