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Dorothy Squires’ love: Roger Moore
When letters, written in Italian landed on Dorothy Squires’ doormat, it signalled that her life was about to change forever.
Her then husband, Roger Moore of ‘007’ fame, had been filming in Rome but unbeknown to Dorothy filming had finished and he was back in the country. Dot hadn’t heard from him in some time which wasn’t unusual; he would rarely phone when he was working. Her secretary sarcastically quipped, “Ring the best hotel in Rome, he’s sure to be there.”
Determined to find out where he was Dorothy decided to go to Roger’s father’s apartment. On arriving, she bumped into one of the residents. The woman, recognising Dorothy, told her that if she was looking for Mr. Moore, he’d been taken to Woolwich War Memorial Hospital. Dorothy said that she didn’t know that her father-in-law was ill. The woman informed her that it wasn’t Roger’s father who was ill but Roger himself. Dorothy, mad as hell by this information, stormed into the hospital and confronted him.
It transpired he’d been seeing an actress on the set called Luisa Mattioli. The way that Dorothy found out would have made a good plot for a film. After Roger had been discharged from hospital, a bunch of the aforementioned letters addressed to him had been forwarded to her house. They had Italian postmarks so Dorothy, suspecting the worst, opened them. She couldn’t understand a word but the kisses on the bottom told her she was in trouble. She asked an Italian friend to translate them but when she heard what was written she wished she hadn’t. Roger had had affairs before but this time it was love.
Dorothy, obsessed with getting Roger back, found out he’d moved in with Luisa in Mill Hill and decided to confront him. She arrived dressed to kill in her Ford Thunderbird and proceeded to hurl stones, smashing every window in the house.
Roger tried to restrain her but she grabbed him by the throat. “Your hand is bleeding” he croaked. Dorothy, full of Welsh drama cried: “It’s my heart that’s bleeding.”
By Johnny Tudor
