She is a British playwright and actress. He is a powerful New York theatre impresario. So when the marriage of Tricia Walsh-Smith and 74-year-old Philip Smith hit the rocks the results were always likely to be dramatic.
Yesterday, the former Grange Hill and Benny Hill actress revealed she still had a gift for the big theatrical gesture when she took to the Internet with intimate claims against her estranged husband.
In a six-minute rant posted on the YouTube website, 49-year-old Mrs Walsh-Smith talks directly to the camera and says: "We never had sex. He said it was because he had high blood pressure.
"I accepted that. Then last year I found Viagra, porn movies and condoms. Maybe I should call him up and ask him what he wants to do with the condoms."
In the YouTube video, Mrs Walsh-Smith moves through their £400,000 flat in Manhattan from the kitchen to an office where she dials her husband.
After being told he is on a conference call, she tells his secretary: "I don't know if you know, but you know Philip and I never had sex...but he's got Viagra and condoms and stuff here and porn movies.
"Just ask him what he wants me to do with them, would you?"
The startled assistant screams: "Wait! Wait! Wait, you want me to ask him this now?"
Mrs Walsh-Smith, who has admitted having a drink problem, goes on: "Does he mind what I do with his condoms and stuff?"
The actress says in her biography that her father was in the RAF and until the age of 12 she traveled the world with her family.
She attended the Italia Conti stage school in London and appeared in dozens of shows in the 1970s and early 80s.
She also says she appeared in more than 500 TV commercials and a cult film called Terror.
From 1986, she concentrated on writing and her first play Bonkers premiered at the Man in the Moon Theatre, London. Since marrying in 1999 she has lived in New York.
The YouTube video, in which Mrs Walsh-Smith claims her husband is worth £30million but fumes that his two grown-up daughters will inherit all his money, immediately became the talk of the theater world in New York.
Her rant also reveals that a pre-nuptial agreement contained a clause allowing her husband to evict her from the Manhattan flat in 30 days if he had grounds for divorce.
She goes on to say she will get a £250,000 a year pension for life when her husband dies and their £300,000 flat in Florida.
The actress then breaks down in tears as she says: "I am an idiot, I am the biggest ******* idiot in the world."
It is believed the couple separated last year after Mrs Walsh-Smith complained to a U.S. gossip writer that her husband gave her a weekly allowance of just £200. Mr Smith is president of the Shubert Organisation, the largest owner of theaters on Broadway. He could not be contacted yesterday.
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Yesterday, the former Grange Hill and Benny Hill actress revealed she still had a gift for the big theatrical gesture when she took to the Internet with intimate claims against her estranged husband.
In a six-minute rant posted on the YouTube website, 49-year-old Mrs Walsh-Smith talks directly to the camera and says: "We never had sex. He said it was because he had high blood pressure.
"I accepted that. Then last year I found Viagra, porn movies and condoms. Maybe I should call him up and ask him what he wants to do with the condoms."
In the YouTube video, Mrs Walsh-Smith moves through their £400,000 flat in Manhattan from the kitchen to an office where she dials her husband.
After being told he is on a conference call, she tells his secretary: "I don't know if you know, but you know Philip and I never had sex...but he's got Viagra and condoms and stuff here and porn movies.
"Just ask him what he wants me to do with them, would you?"
The startled assistant screams: "Wait! Wait! Wait, you want me to ask him this now?"
Mrs Walsh-Smith, who has admitted having a drink problem, goes on: "Does he mind what I do with his condoms and stuff?"
The actress says in her biography that her father was in the RAF and until the age of 12 she traveled the world with her family.
She attended the Italia Conti stage school in London and appeared in dozens of shows in the 1970s and early 80s.
She also says she appeared in more than 500 TV commercials and a cult film called Terror.
From 1986, she concentrated on writing and her first play Bonkers premiered at the Man in the Moon Theatre, London. Since marrying in 1999 she has lived in New York.
The YouTube video, in which Mrs Walsh-Smith claims her husband is worth £30million but fumes that his two grown-up daughters will inherit all his money, immediately became the talk of the theater world in New York.
Her rant also reveals that a pre-nuptial agreement contained a clause allowing her husband to evict her from the Manhattan flat in 30 days if he had grounds for divorce.
She goes on to say she will get a £250,000 a year pension for life when her husband dies and their £300,000 flat in Florida.
The actress then breaks down in tears as she says: "I am an idiot, I am the biggest ******* idiot in the world."
It is believed the couple separated last year after Mrs Walsh-Smith complained to a U.S. gossip writer that her husband gave her a weekly allowance of just £200. Mr Smith is president of the Shubert Organisation, the largest owner of theaters on Broadway. He could not be contacted yesterday.
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