'EastEnders' actress Wendy Richard was never told her cancer was terminal, claims her husband John Burns.
John, 45, said he only realised his wife was going to die minutes before she passed away on February 26.
He said: "The first I knew she wasn't going to make it was about four minutes before she died. At no point were we told that the cancer was terminal."
John's revelations counter previous press reports Wendy had known her cancer was terminal since October 2008.
Describing his final moments with Wendy - who played one of the longest running characters in EastEnders, Pauline Fowler, over 22 years - before she succumbed to cancer aged 65, John recalled: "The nurses who were usually so upbeat seemed subdued and shocked.
"The doctor started talking about Wendy's blood cells and I asked, 'what are you saying?' That's when he told me, 'she isn't going to make it.'
"I held her hand and stroked her face, and the first tear that dropped hit my arm, then rolled onto hers. It was like it was all happening in slow motion. Then the nurse said to me, 'She's gone'. It was so sudden, I was so sure she was coming home."
Wendy had previously survived two bouts of breast cancer and had just finished filming a documentary about living with cancer called 'Wendy Richard: To Tell you the Truth'.
Tributes were held for the actress by members of the soap's cast and crew at her funeral last week (09.03.09).
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