Pam St. Clement (born 12 May 1942) is a British actress, best known for playing Pat Butcher in the BBC One soap opera EastEnders from 1986 until 2012, therefore becoming one of the programme's longest-serving cast members.

Biography

Clement is bisexual and is a supporter of gay rights—campaigning with Stonewall against Section 28 and for lowering the age of consent for gay men. Clement is known to be an intensely private person who seldom speaks about her personal life, and it has been suggested that this is due to the way the press hounded her when it was revealed she was in a relationship with a woman. During the 1960s Clement was married to a man named Andrew Gordon, but they divorced in 1976.

In 1997, Clement discovered that she had a brother Reginald (born 1934) from her father's first marriage. Clement maintained that she had been in touch with her father, who died in 1993, aged 84. In spite of this, he had never mentioned having any other children. Her brother had barely known their father and had not seen him since he was a toddler.

Clement has been the focus of much media criticism regarding her weight over the years, which earned her character the nickname "Fat Pat". In 1998 she lost several stone from dieting, which led the media to speculate that she had become ill. She later commented: "I have since decided I wasn't made to be slim. When I was thinner the paparazzi got some pictures where I looked ill. I had to come out and speak about it."

Clements's autobiography, The End of an Earring, was released in 2015.