My lover hired a yacht.. it was so J-Lo. I thought it was all over,

0 Comments | Sunday Mirror, Oct 24, 2004 | by DANIELLE LAWLER TV Reporter

IN EASTENDERS she's Dirty Den's secret wife caught up in a love triangle with his step-daughter.

But away from Walford Tracy-Ann Oberman was convinced her own love life was heading for the rocks when boyfriend Rob Cowan whisked her away on a yacht.

"I thought he was going to chuck me and let me down gently," says Tracy- Ann. "Rob suddenly flew me off to Spain after filming . The next day all I wanted to do was lie on a sunlounger, but he'd hired a yacht...it was all very J-Lo.

"Then we dropped anchor and he brought out a bottle of champagne and a pair of diamond earrings from Tiffany and said 'I love you. I never thought I'd find myself asking this, but I want to spend the rest of my life with you.'

"I had a moment of anxiety and then I thought 'Yes, this is right. I've got a great friend, someone I respect and he's really sexy. I can't wait!"

It might seem strange that someone as beautiful as 35-year-old Tracy-Ann assumed she was about to be dumped.

But she had good reason to expect the worst. In her professional life she had twice been rocked when news of bizarre personal scandals involving the men she was working with hit the headlines.

First she was filming TV show Bob Martin with Michael Barrymore when a man was found dead in his swimming pool after a drink and drugs party. And she had been in EastEnders for just 24 hours when revelations of Leslie Grantham's internet sexploits hit the front page.

"That's two examples of working very closely with someone who you respect enormously and who is very professional and a lovely man," she says. "But then certain things happen - and you think 'Gosh, I would never have known'"

Tracy-Ann even began to suspect she might be jinxed. She says: "Having been through two high-profile cases with leading men I even wondered 'Is it me?' I don't really know how it happened. The psychology maybe?"

And she adds: "Michael's case was a terrible tragedy for everyone involved. I had people calling me up and say 'What are the chances of that?

"As far as Leslie was concerned, I respect him 100 per cent for the fact that you would never have known what had gone on. He got down on that set and worked his butt off."

Tracy-Ann, who always vowed she would never marry, was won over by music producer Rob's extravagant proposal during the summer.

She beams with happiness when his name is mentioned. "I always thought marriage was the big 'iron curtains' and such a huge commitment," she laughs. "I've always been in long relationships, but I never really saw marriage as something I wanted or needed to do. I used to say to people, How do you know?' and they'd say 'You just know' - it was so annoying. But you kind of do."

But she almost called her New Year wedding off after she had to be carted off by ambulance from a Bond Street jewellers after slipping on the pavement when she and Rob went to choose an engagement ring.

"I thought it might have been an omen and for a fleeting second I thought 'Is someone trying to tell me something?' But I decided, 'No'. I'm still going through with the wedding!"

So how did the accident happen? "I am the most accident-prone person in the world," she grins. "It had been raining and as I walked in to Aspreys to look again at a ring we'd seen earlier, I slipped.

"My foot smashed into the door, I ripped my toe-nail and fractured my big toe. I fainted smack bang in the middle of the shop with my toe pouring with blood.

"I came round to find the assistant who'd been serving us waving a ring in front of my face saying 'Miss, miss, look at the ring, it is pounds 300,000... don't look at your toe'.

"They called an ambulance and, to make it even more embarrassing, Bond Street had been shut down for the Olympic flame to come through.

"I was strapped into a wheelchair with an oxygen mask on with hundreds of people watching me. I tried to put on dark glasses to make me look inconspicuous but people were going: 'Isn't that the bird from EastEnders?'

"I ended up in accident and emergency with Rob laughing his head off saying 'Thank you. You have given me so much material for my wedding speech'.

"If you see the prices of the wedding rings in Aspreys it should have been him that was fainting not me! We got a ring made in the end - it's a huge, emerald-cut diamond. My friends keep saying 'Put it back in the fridge or it'll melt' - it's gorgeous!"

As well as working with Barrymore and being on EastEnders, Tracy- Ann has played the National Theatre with Kenneth Branagh and done more than 600 radio plays, voice-overs and even stand-up comedy.

But her career almost came to an end three years ago when a routine operation on her wisdom teeth went tragically wrong - leaving her unable to speak or move her face.

She still finds it a struggle to move the lower part of her face and is hampered by tingling sensations from her damaged nerve endings.

"I was incredibly distressed," she says. "For about a month to six weeks I had to sit there wondering if I would ever be able to work again.

"I had to totally rethink my life. I'd been offered a part in a film, but I couldn't follow it through. It was really scary times - I felt so down."