EASTENDERS star Charlie Brooks is splashing out on a Grand Designs-style makeover of her £1.5million Surrey home – to make it easier for her ex to pop over.
The soap icon, who played Janine Butcher, lives downstairs while Ibiza nightclub owner Tony Truman stays in the flat above to help raise daughter Kiki, in a highly-unusual living arrangement.
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Now she wants to extend her five-bedroom home and build a new external stairway so Tony, who she split from in 2007, can pop down to see her and share the garden.
Tony, 55, has applied to the local council for planning permission for a two-storey rear extension to create two new master bedrooms, complete with his and hers walk-in wardrobes.
He has also applied for a single storey side extension for a new enlarged main entrance door and a bigger loft conversion including dormer windows and roof lights.
In papers filed at the council, their planning agent said: ‘Flats are currently owned by the same family, thus they are both consenting to install said access staircase between each of their respective demises being from the balcony of flat A down to the garden of flat B.
If in the future any of the properties would be sold and an external member of the public purchased/took ownership; the staircase would be removed and upper balcony timberwork be ‘made good.’
Charlie, who quit Albert Square as Janine Butcher on Boxing Day, is also planning a major facelift of her home with a new timber cladding, new painted render to the first floor, new patio doors and juliet balcony.
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There will also be new dormer windows, new sash windows and a privacy screen surround to the first floor landing and balcony, in keeping with her celebrity status.
In an interview two years ago, Charlie said: “We are going to grow old together, just in a very different way. He is absolutely my family and nothing will ever change that.
“And it’s not always been easy, he’s in Ibiza for eight or nine months out of the year and bringing Kiki up on my own a lot of the time was tough and we’ve really had to navigate our way around that.
“But whatever happens, no matter how much we fall out, which we have done, big time, it’s not always plain sailing, but 80 per cent of the time it is and he’s a good man and has looked after us.
Speaking on the White Wine Question Time podcast with Kate Thornton, she added: “He’s a character, I love him to bits, he can be an a******* sometimes but nobody’s perfect are they?”
Charlie, 41, is best known for playing villainous Janine Butcher in EastEnders between 1999 to 2004 and again in 2008 until 2014.
Her portrayal of supervillain Janine bagged her a number of awards, including Villain of the Year at the British Soap Awards in 2004.
The star was embroiled in a number of dramatic storylines during her time on the show, which saw three of Janine’s four husbands meet grisly ends.
Planners at the council are expected to make a decision on her home extensions next month and there have so far been no objections from neighbours.
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