Amanda Mealing was a very familiar face on daytime TV before her life took a troubling turn. The star, best known for her role as Connie Beauchamp in Casualty, has pleaded guilty to drug driving after she crashed into another driver while high on cocaine, leaving the nurse behind the wheel seriously injured.
She veered across the road before colliding with Mark Le Sage’s vehicle as he was on his way to work, the court heard. The BBC medical drama actress had 18mcg of cocaine in her blood, with the legal limit being 10mcg, and has been banned from driving for 22 months. She was also ordered to pay £485 in fines.
Amanda, 57, made her TV debut at just six-years-old in a Julie Andrews special on BBC television and went on to make a noticeable appearance on the drama series Grange Hill as Tracy Edwards in 1980. Success soon followed, appearing in the huge movie rom-com Four Weddings and a Funeral in 1994. But her big break came when she joined BBC’s medical dramas Casualty and Holby City as cardiothoracic consultant Connie Beauchamp in 2004.
After an impressive 18-year stint as the character, as well as directing four episodes of Casualty, she stepped down as Connie in 2021. Here we look at the star’s unfortunate decline from a thriving acting career to drug driving, and the personal struggles that may have fuelled it.
Amanda has admitted to driving under the influence of drugs(Image: BBC)
Drug driving crash
Off-duty nurse Mark Le Sage was driving along in his Skoda Kodiaq, a 1.6ton SUV when he noticed Amanda’s Mini on the wrong side of the road as he approached a bend at 10.14am on January 26, last year. Her drug driving resulted in a crash which left him with long-term injuries. Since the incident, Mark has had to give up his job as a theatre nurse as he was unable to fill syringes due to a new tremor. He is also unable to stand on his feet for a long period of time and cannot work in the colder temperatures in the operating theatres.
Prosecutor Marie Stace informed the court that Mealing, who appeared under her married name of Amanda Sainsbury, sustained a head cut, a broken wrist and a broken clavicle in the January 2024 accident. The actress admitted to driving under the influence of cocaine and driving without due care and attention.
Amanda collided her car into Mark Le Sage’s Skoda
As well as 18mcg of cocaine in her blood, the court also found that Amanda was in excess of 240mcg of benzoylecgonine, which is the chemical that cocaine leaves after being metabolised in the body. This is almost five times over the legal limit of 50mcg. In a police interview, Mealing confessed to taking cocaine the night before, according to Ms Stace.
Mealing’s lawyer, Mr Edward Lloyd, stated: “In terms of the offence, my client pleaded guilty to drug driving at the very first opportunity. It’s something she’s deeply ashamed of. She’s not somebody who takes drugs at all. Her brother died of a drugs overdose when he was 18 and she says herself that she should have known better.”
During a court hearing on Friday, Mark told prosecutor Ms Stace that he didn’t believe Amanda should be jailed for the incident. He said that the court heard how Amanda had children and had “suffered” like he had. “I did not think it was appropriate for her to be jailed,” he said.
Family loss
Mealing had reportedly been grappling with the loss of her father, best friend and pet dog prior to the horrific accident. Her solicitor, Lloyd told the court, as reported by the Daily Mail: “Unfortunately it came at a terrible moment in her life. She tells me she was undergoing divorce proceedings from her husband, which was extremely upsetting.” Amanda has been married to her screenwriter husband, Richard Sainsbury, since 1998, and together, they share two sons, Otis and Milo.
The solicitor continued: “Within a short space of time her father had died, she had to put her dog down and her best friend had died. So all of these events occurred. It was deeply, deeply upsetting.” They added: “She is, however, a lady who has significant health problems. She suffers from blood cancer, so she’s not working at the present time.”
The actress lost her brother from a heroin overdose(Image: BBC)
Mealing, who grew up in Dulwich, South London, went through another loss at the tender age of 15 when her 29-year-old brother Stephen tragically died from a heroin overdose. The siblings were very close, and his passing deeply impacted her, which saw her have the stark realisation that: “life can be short… there’s no point sitting around”.
In 2021, Mealing reflected on the tragic loss of her brother and said: “He was 14 years older than me, but we were incredibly close.” She further expressed to The Times: “I think he had dabbled in drugs as a teenager. But it was just an accident. It was a real tragedy for everyone and, yes, it did influence me. It reminded me that life can be short and I thought there’s no point sitting around. Go out and live each day.”
Health battles
Just a day after welcoming her second son in August 2002, Mealing received a devastating diagnosis of breast cancer. She became an ambassador for Breast Cancer Care in early 2010 and celebrated her 45th birthday by running the 2012 London Marathon for the charity. As mentioned by her solicitor, she is reportedly fighting blood cancer. As a result of this, the court heard that she isn’t currently working due to the diagnosis.
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Adoption
At the age of 30, Mealing discovered she was adopted and was the only one among her siblings after a cousin reportedly let slip the news to a family. She spent a significant part of her life searching for her biological parents, leading her to the USA, where she discovered her birth mother was a former Biba model from London’s swinging sixties. The pair are now said to enjoy a close relationship with regular visits.
Her biological father, she found out, was a half-Ghanaian poet and activist who had sadly passed away years before. She also unearthed the existence of a younger sister, also adopted in Britain, who began to suspect their familial connection after spotting Mealing on TV.