Tracy Shaw (b. 1 April 1975) is a British actress.
Shaw was born into the hotel and pub trade, at the time when her parents ran the Talbot Hotel in Belper, Derbyshire. Shaw attended St. Benedict's School in Derbyshire, and went to the Arden School of Theatre in Manchester in 1990, where she got a degree in theatre studies.
Her best known work at present is hairdresser Maxine Peacock in the long-running, popular British soap 'Coronation Street' which is set and filmed in Manchester, England. Shaws's character met a tragic and unfortunate end in 2003 when she was murdered by Richard Hillman.
She has also appeared in numerous ITV dramas. In 2003 Shaw appeared as Sally in the stage play 'The Blue Room', starring alongside a nude Jason Connery (Sean Connery's son).
Following marriage, and battles with anorexia and drinking, Shaw divorced her husband post a six month period in rehab. She now has one child and is expecting her second with her new partner, and presently has no plans to return to stage or screen.
Shaw has struggled with anorexia and bulimia (falling from eight to a low weight of five stone). She was also caught shoplifting, which she put down to simple absent-mindedness, and no charges were pressed. In May 1996 things looked up as she was presented with the '1996 Rear of the Year' title. She had a series of high-profile romances, including engagement to Darren Day, which lead to cocaine addiction.
Shaw married producer Robert Ashworth in June 2001, but a series of early problems occurred including a row on a return flight from the Caribbean having been filming ITV1's "Wish You Were Here". In 2003, her father Karl Shaw was featured in an article in the News Of The World, and said that Shaw survived on "three bottles of wine and a packet of crisps a day". He also said that if "she carries on this way it will kill her".
Shaw made moves to turn her life around and save her marriage, including seeking psychiatric help and spending six months in rehab. Resultantly she set up an eating disorder charity called "The Tracy Shaw Foundation" which helps teenagers combat eating disorders.
Her marriage ended in divorce in 2004, and Shaw set up home with childhood friend and computer saleman Ashley Poundall, son of her mother's partner of five years, Colin. The couple now live in Caversham, Berkshire and have one son Louis (born March 2005), and are expecting their second. Shaw presently has no plans to return to stage or screen.
In 2000, alleged stalker Kevin Sedgwick plead guilty to harassing Shaw over a period of five years. He had written a number of letters to her, as well as Coronation Street co-stars Jacqueline Pirie and Jennifer James, and hung around the grounds of Granada Studios in Manchester, put his arms around Miss Shaw, and asked for a kiss. Sedgwick plead guilty later that year to multiple acts of gross indecency with children and had suffered from hearing voices in his head.
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