Laila Rouass has lived through more crazy ups and downs than any Footballers Wives character - including a Strictly race row, a jailed husband and a horrifying terror attack

Laila Rouass made her name in ITV series Footballers Wives, a series famous for its outrageous storylines.

However, away from the cameras, the 53-year-old actress's life has been equally eventful having experienced two botched marriages, a husband sent to prison, a TV scandal, plus the small matter of surviving a terror attack.

Her latest real-life drama is Laila's reported split from snooker ace Ronnie O'Sullivan, her partner of 12 years.

The pair called off their romance 'having barely seen each other' over the past few months, due to The Rocket playing abroad and Laila focusing on her acting career, which recently included a stint in EastEnders .

The pair, who briefly split in 2022 before getting back together, have never made it up the aisle despite Ronnie gifting Laila a sparkling ring within months of meeting.

But after two failed marriages, one of which was never officially recorded, you can perhaps understand the mother-of-one's reluctance to get hitched again.

In 1990, Laila married for the first time when she was just 16 to family friend Abdeslam Rouas in a Tower Hamlets register office in East London .

They moved to India shortly afterwards, where Laila worked for the BBC and hosted an Indian version of Blind Date.

But the relationship with the hospital worker was in name only - as they never had sex. They divorced in 2003.

Laila said: 'I got married when I was about 16 or 17, I can't remember. That's how much it meant to me.

'The guy was a close family friend. It was something I did when I was very young. I never slept with him.'

Following the split, she returned to the UK and found love with businessman Nasie Khan, the father of her 17-year-old daughter Inez.

They held a lavish wedding party at private members' club Home House in 2005, but the marriage was never official.

However, the relationship ended 14 months later when Laila accused her husband of having an affair with her cousin.

In 2011, Khan was jailed for nine years for his role in a £250miion VAT fraud.

The actress, who also starred in Hollyoaks, Holby City, Spooks and Prime Evil, briefly dated TV chef James Petrie in 2010, the year after she appeared on Strictly Come Dancing.

Her time on the BBC1 show was overshadowed by the race row which erupted when her dance partner Anton De Beke called her a 'P***' after having a spray tan.

Anton made a public apology at the time and in July this year, Laila defended the now Strictly judge after his comment resurfaced in light of the BBC's probe into the behaviour of dancers' behaviour on the back of Amanda Abbington accusing pro Giovanni Pernice of 'bullying and coercive behaviour'.

Racism is a hot topic for Laila, particularly as she suffered horrendous abuse as a youngster.

Laila was born in Stepney, East London, and was brought up by her Moroccan father and Indian mother alongside her four sisters and two brothers.

She was heavily bullied at school, even needing a police escort at lunchtime, and was regularly taunted on her estate.

Speaking to The Sun in 2011, she said: 'As a family living in a poor area of east London with lots of other emigrants, we experienced terrible racism. Even dog excrement was left outside our front door.

'I was eight years old when a group of guys surrounded me outside a block of flats and started shouting 'P**i' at me.'

On her school days, she added: 'It was tough growing up in Stepney and I was bullied so badly at school, I needed a police escort at lunchtime.

'When my mother found out, she was livid. She is tiny and looks like the most innocent woman, but is hard as nails. She demanded that I tell them to stop.'

Laila credits her mum Fatima for her buxom figure, not that she was allowed to embrace her looks growing up.

She added: 'My mother, Fatima, has always taught me to focus on brains rather than beauty. When I was growing up she banned me from having a mirror in my bedroom because she didn't want me to be obsessed with my looks or weight.

'As a result, I'm not vain and I have never had issues with my weight. I have got boobs and a bum but Moroccans love big women.'

However, despite the huge admiration for her mum, Laila wouldn't allow her to watch her most famous role, WAG Amber Gates in Footballers Wives.

Laila explained: 'I never let her watch me in Footballers' Wives. She is a Muslim and the show was so raunchy - she would have died of embarrassment.

'However she loved it when I was on Strictly.'

Three years after her stint on the BBC1 dance series, she started dating snooker champ Ronnie, 48, after the pair met in bizarre circumstances.

The actress was house-hunting and took an interest in viewing Ronnie's mansion which was on the market.

After hearing Laila was keen to buy the property, he contacted his estate agent - who was a friend of the soap star - and arranged a date.

Within four months, they were living together in his native Essex along with her daughter, Inez, and got engaged in 2013.

Speaking to the Belfast Telegraph, she explained: 'It happened by accident. I was shown around Ronnie's house by his father, who told his son about meeting me.

'Ronnie called the estate agent, a friend of mine, and asked me out via her.'

And Laila had no idea he was a sporting great, adding: 'When she said he was a snooker player, I said, 'Yeah, but what does he do for a living?' I'd never heard of him because sport doesn't interest me at all, although Ronnie's won me over to snooker.'

But four years after the engagement, Laila got caught up in most terrifying moment of her life, the Barcelona terror attack which left 14 people dead and 80 injured when a van ploughed into pedestrians in Las Ramblas - the city's busiest shopping street.

Laila revealed she hid in a restaurant freezer fearing for her life.

She was still feeling the effects of the incident a year later, revealing on Loose Women: 'There was pandemonium, there were gunshots, people running into the restaurant, I didn't know what was going on.

'I was right in the middle of it, I thought there was a gunman like what happened in Paris, so we ran downstairs to the basement.

'As I was going down, the chef was coming out of the door, so I pushed my daughter through there and it's where the cold room is so I put her in there, covered her up with boxes.

'It's weird, I wasn't really thinking about myself, I just thought 'How do I get her safe?''

Ronnie helped her recover from the ordeal in the same way she supported the snooker star through his mental health battles.

Laila featured in father-of-three Ronnie's 2023 Prime documentary The Edge Of Everything where the pair discussed the snooker legend struggling with his demons.

Laila sat down with Ronnie after his 6-4 defeat to Neil Robertson at the Masters in 2022.

She said: 'I want you to do what makes you to be happy I don't tell you to stop or to carry on. I would never put you in a situation like that.'

But Ronnie then cut in, saying: 'But I think I am much more comfortable with it now than I have ever been.

'If I didn't stop before, when I was really uncomfortable, why would I stop now if I feel more comfortable with it? It is as if I have overcome my demons in a way.'

Laila then added: 'I think that's your mood today. When you see it in a romantic way. But the reality is it's hard to watch somebody go through that emotionally.

'That's when the questions come in. Jesus, why is he doing this? Why does he put himself through it?'

'It's like so soul-destroying. But that's because I think you do love it, as much as you maybe hate to admit it.'