EastEnders' Patsy Palmers life in LA from beating addiction to fleeing wildfire

EastEnders star Patsy Palmer now lives a very different life to her early London days as a single mother, having bravely overcome drug and alcohol addictions and moved to LA

Soap legend Patsy Palmer has shared her heartbreak over the LA wildfires raging across her 'hometown'.

The EastEnders actress, 52, relocated to Malibu in 2014 with her husband, taxi driver Richard Merkell, and their three children, Emilia, Fenton and Bertie. She frequently returns to the UK to film on Albert Square, and came back just last Saturday. Since then, devastating wildfires have ravaged her local area in Los Angeles and her family have been forced to flee.

She wrote on Instagram: "My heart is broken. My brain is fried today looking at the devastating scenes of the fires AGAIN in my hometown. I just returned home to my home in case after the fires a couple of weeks ago and left on Saturday back to work in the UK and now this. My family are safe, but lots of my friends have lost their homes again, which is extremely traumatic."

She continued: "My family are safe but lots of my friends have lost their homes again which is extremely traumatic. Being here so far away is really really hard. I'm praying and crying as I write this. I'm helpless here but praying hard Please reach out if you need anything. Richard and kids are there safe and evacuated. This is huge. Really wasn't expecting this. Heartbroken. Stay safe."

Swapping the cobbles for the States, Patsy turned her life around years ago and has never looked back. The star was just 21 years old when she landed the role of fiery market trader Bianca Jackson in EastEnders, but her life off-screen was almost as dramatic as that of her character. She lived in a tiny, damp flat in London's East End and was a single mum to baby boy Charley.

She once bravely admitted that her life ­revolved around ­alcohol and drugs. Patsy – who first went on stage at the age of six – started drinking at eight, sniffing solvents at 11, and snorting cocaine at 13.

"By my 20s I was bingeing my life away on cocaine, ecstasy, and enough vodka and Laurent Perrier Champagne to quench a small village's thirst for several hours," she wrote in her autobiography, All Of Me. "I would be out of my head for two or three days in a row - whole chunks of time were lost. I took so many drugs I'm amazed I survived."

Her first marriage to filmmaker Nick Love in the summer of 1998 lasted just five months. It wasn't until she entered rehab in September 2004 that she finally got clean. "I don't know how I survived. It was the producer who first sent me away to get help when she realised things were getting out of control. I was basically having a nervous breakdown", she told Fabulous magazine.

Her second marriage, to now-husband Richard in 2000, provided the stability she needed that set her on the road to sobriety. She once told The Mirror: "We don't have drink in our house. Richard is a social drinker but he doesn't drink at home. I follow the 12-step ­programme from ­Alcoholics ­Anonymous and Narcotics ­Anonymous."

In 2014, she turned her back on the BBC1 show and Blighty for life by the beach in Malibu, California. Now, her fabulous life is unrecognisable from the dark days she fought so hard to leave behind and Patsy, Richard and their three children enjoy an idyllic life in a sprawling pad by the sea.

Their lavish mansion boasts uninterrupted views across the ocean and features a modern, neutral finish throughout. One room houses Patsy's personal passion - her DJ decks, while the children are all home-schooled to free up time for them to focus on their own acting and modelling careers.

"They don't really like school anyway, I hated it when I was a kid, so I'm never going to push them," Patsy previously told i-D magazine. "They're very creative - I feel like there's a lot more they could be doing outside of school, anyway." Her second eldest son, Fenton, is a successful model signed to The Dragonfly Agency.

He hit the headlines in 2017 when it was claimed he was going out with supermodel Cindy Crawford's lookalike daughter Kaia Gerber, and was last romantically linked to Real Housewives of Beverly Hills star Lisa Rinna's daughter, Amelia Gray. Meanwhile, his big brother Charley Palmer Rothwell - who Patsy had with former boyfriend, boxer Alfie Rothwell - is more than a rising star.

Charley has starred in iBoy, Dunkirk and opposite Tom Hardy in Legend. The 32-year-old chose to stay behind in London when the family relocated, and most will recognise him as Baz from Our Girl. "He is already a movie star. He is amazing, and he has done incredible things," proud Patsy gushed of her firstborn in 2016.

Then there's Patsy's daughter Emilia, who is signed to the same modelling agency as Fenton, and also happens to be good friends with Kaia. She's already starred in campaigns for Calvin Klein and landed high-profile covers for the likes of Tatler and Wonderland.

And finally, there's young Bertie. While he's yet to launch his career, Patsy previously revealed that her entire brood is keen on cracking the entertainment industry - despite her warning them off. "My kids are looking like they want to do it," she previously told ITV's Lorraine. "[I told them] don't do it."

As for Patsy, the actress is all about female empowerment and founded the Commonwealth Lifestyle Foundation which helps women make business and personal connections while raising money for charity. She counts Meg Matthews, Cindy Crawford, and Camille Grammer among her closest friends and can often be found hanging out at the private members' club Soho House.