Actress Sunetra Sarker, known for her role in the BBC medical drama Casualty, has revealed that her ex-husband, Nick Corfield, died two years ago at the age of 53. Sarker, who is the mother of their only child, Noah, described his death as a "massive bombshell" that she is still struggling to process.
Corfield, the father of Sarker's 25-year-old son, passed away in 2022. The cause of his death was not disclosed by Sarker. "I don't even think I've still processed Nick's passing," she said during an appearance on The Mid Point with Gabby Logan podcast. She noted that Corfield was "very young" when he died.
Sarker, who was married to Corfield from 2003 to 2013, explained that she has spent the last two years grieving privately and supporting her son Noah, a university student, as he adjusted to the loss of his father. She also spoke about the role her second husband, Scott Carey, has played in helping to fill the void left by Corfield.
"We focused a lot on Noah having this new dynamic because he gets on amazingly with Scott and always has," Sarker said. "But he is his stepdad and he's always seen him as that. Now, all of a sudden, there was this big gap where there was no dad role for Noah anymore."
She added that Carey has been mindful of Corfield's absence, ensuring that Noah's home environment includes memories of his father. "He plays darts with him all the time. He just does a lot of things that don't even come past my mind because I'm focusing maybe more on the emotional stuff," Sarker observed.
To help Noah, who Sarker said worried about forgetting his father, she makes an effort to keep Corfield present in their lives. "I talk as if he's still here," she explained. "I say, 'Well, me and dad will be really... well, what me and dad would want is this.' I think I'm doing it to try and pretend to myself he's also still here."
Sarker expressed concern about future milestones in Noah's life that his father will miss, drawing parallels to witnessing Corfield's daughter, Brodie, from a previous relationship grow up. "Nick's witnessed how wonderful she became. I do think, ah, what's going to happen when there's these epic moments in Noah's life, and his dad won't be there?"
However, she also finds solace in the clarity of Noah's memories. "But I suppose in another sense, I also freeze time and know that Noah's memories of his dad are all so wonderfully intact, that nothing can change it."
Sarker reflected on her divorce from Corfield, which occurred when Noah was 12. She admitted to "procrastinating" the split, viewing divorce as a failure of a commitment. "Our marriage hadn't worked. We were reasonably incompatible in many places, but to actually say it's over, takes a lot," she stated.
She married Scott Carey in November 2018, though their relationship dates back to their university days in 1991. They dated on and off as students before reconnecting 14 years ago. "We were on and off, and we were always friends, and then we lost contact for 18 years. And then out of the blue..." Sarker recalled.
Sarker acknowledged that she ended things with Carey the first time around and regretted how she did it, describing herself as having been "terrible to him." They eventually reunited, with Sarker noting that had they stayed together initially, they might not be in their current positions.
Carey, who has children of his own, moved in with Sarker in September 2023, after previously living separately to avoid disrupting their children's lives. Sarker described their cohabitation as "really new" and shared that Carey handles gardening and cooking, while she is still determining her role.
The couple considered having another child together upon reuniting but decided against it, partly due to their ages and existing family structures. "Because bringing a fourth child into a family would be quite unusual," Sarker said. "But we do wish we knew what that would have looked like."
Before their marriage, Sarker and Carey arranged for their children to meet at Center Parcs to ensure they would get along. "I said to Scott, without our kids getting on, nothing's going to happen. So we constructed a fake meetup," she recounted. They engineered the children to become friends on the water rapids, leading them to believe they were the initiators of their parents' continued connection.