Emmerdale star was once homeless - and classed a bacon butty as a 'luxury'

ok.co.uk:

The late Steve Halliwell, a.k.a. Emmerdale's Zak Dingle, once struggled to afford a basic bacon sandwich during his early days as an actor.

Steve, who passed away in December 2023, had a tough childhood with his brother Clive, and as he revealed sadly in his candid autobiography If The Cap Fits, even a simple bacon sandwich was considered a 'luxury' he could not afford.

He recalled in his moving 2014 memoir: "When I first went on this walk there was a small cafe in the woods known as Nab's Wife (a corruption of the area originally known as Nab's Wharfe), where you could get a refreshing cup of tea and a Mars bar.

You could also get a bacon butty, but we never had enough money for such 'luxuries'. The late star added: "On one occasion I persuaded Mum to give Clive and me enough money for a bacon butty each, but when we got to the cafe it was all boarded up and, sadly, never reopened." Before becoming a household name, Steve took on various low-paying jobs before leaving home in search of "adventure and freedom", a journey that didn't quite go as planned.The future star ended up homeless, sleeping rough, and admitted to times when he was "starving hungry and without money", reports the Express.