FALCON CREST heartthrob Simon MacCorkindale says it was a long, hard struggle to
capture the heart of his wife, sexy British actress Susan George.
"I had to propose to Susie hundreds of times before she at last agreed to marry me,"
Simon reveals. "And when she finally did, we both burst into tears.
"It was an Easter Sunday, and I was talking about how wonderful it would be when we
had children. Susie was doing something in the kitchen. There was a long silence and I
thought I'd gone too far and really blown it.
"Then suddenly I heard her say: "Yes, I will marry you'. We fell into each other's arms
and we were both in tears.
'Fresh air'
"The odd thing is that, in a way, I didn't want to fall in love with Susie at all," adds
Simon, who used to be married to James Bond actress Fiona Fullerton.
"But meeting Susie was a breath of fresh air and I simply fell in love with her."
Simon, 32, and Susan, 35, were secretly married on the Pacific island of Fiji last fall —
and later repeated the vows in a church near London.
Simon came into Susan's life at the end of —two depressing years. She was unhappy,
her career had sputtered to a halt, and she feared she was seriously ill.
Unhappy
"I had a suspected thyroid problem, and a doctor gave me some pills," she says. "But as I began taking them, I put on weight.
"It became a vicious circle. The more weight I put on, the more depressed I became. And when I was puffed up, I began to get overlooked for glamorous roles.
"It scared me to think I was losing any looks I had."
Blow
The crushing blow came at a party. "One of the guests made a hurtful remark about me
having double chins," Susan says. "I was so upset that I got into a taxi and cried all the way
home.
"For two years, I went around
thinking I was ill. But when I
saw i. another doctor he took
me off the pills andmy
weight came down to
normal." Now that Susan, a
former date of Prince
Charles, is back in shape and
happily married, she's
thinking about a family.
"We both want children,"
she says. "I have my career to
consider. But I have always
be lived in taking time to stop
and smell the roses along the
way.
"When and if I become a
mother I will want to spend
time with my child. I would
hate for a child of mine to be
farmed out to a nanny all the
time."
