Jennifer Ellison says she was forced off the road by a machete wielding gang in targeted attack during relationship with jailed ex Anthony Richardson – after drive-by shooting at her home almost cost her a Hollywood role

Former Brookside star Jennifer Ellison says she felt like she was ‘in two parallel worlds’ after being targeted by a machete gang in Liverpool.

The actress was at the height of her fame after starring as teenager Emily Shadwick in the Channel 4 soap opera before embarking on a short-lived pop career.

But a high-profile relationship with ex-fiancé Anthony Richardson, who had links to criminal underworld figures in Liverpool and was jailed for a brutal sword attack in 2011, made her a vulnerable target for rival gang members.

Speaking to Anything Goes with James English, Ellison, 40, claims she was forced off the road after being followed from her home during one of several terrifying confrontations.

‘Literally one day I was driving out of my house and a well-known family in Liverpool chased me in the car and [I] I was driving along the central embankment and the car turned over and the next thing I knew they had a machete,” she recalled.

A high-profile relationship with ex-fiancée Anthony Richardson, who had links to Liverpool underworld criminal figures, made her a vulnerable target for rival gang members

‘I’m driving… and he bangs on my car with his machete and the car literally flies towards me. I’m at the height of fame, hugely, hugely famous and it’s like two parallel worlds.’

In a separate incident, the actress was left shocked after three masked men attacked her Range Rover as she left a fashion show in Liverpool with Richardson, who suffered a stomach wound after being hit with a machete.

Worse was to follow when her home was peppered with bullets in a drive-by shooting while she was filming a film adaptation of The Phantom Of The Opera in London.

Recalling the 2003 incident, she said: “I was hugely successful, there was no Instagram, there were no influencers. It was fame, when fame was fame, and I work with Hollywood A-listers.

‘I’m a hotel in London, and new news back home in Liverpool says my house is being shot at with an AK47, and I have to work with Andrew Lloyd Weber, Gerard Butler… it was so embarrassing.’

Ellison admitted that some of the cast had concerns about working with her after the episode, with some pushing for another actress to fill her role as Meg Giry.

‘There were concerns because of what had happened at home and some of the cast didn’t want me to continue filming, they almost wanted me fired.

‘But the director Gerard Butler [the film was actually directed by Joel Schumacher] fought for me and said she’s not going anywhere.’

Speaking to Anything Goes with James English, Ellison, 40, claims she was forced off the road after being followed from her home during an incident

At the time, Ellison’s taxi driver father was living in the property, and she admits it was sheer luck that prevented him from being home when the shooting happened in the early hours of the morning.

“The bullets had gone through the front door, through the kitchen door, through the back window and into the roof of the back neighbors,” she said.

Ellison first met tanning bed salesman Richardson when she was 16, but it would be a year before they began what she later claimed was an abusive seven-year relationship.

And she claims the abuse included being hit on the head with a beer bottle while out for a night.

She said: ‘We went to a nightclub and he started being really funny all day. And anyway, he started drinking and whatever. I was no angel, but we had this fight in the middle of a nightclub.

‘I was driving out of my house and a well-known family in Liverpool chased me in the car and [I] I was driving along the central embankment… and the next thing I knew they had a machete,” she recalled

Richardson was jailed for eight and a half years for a brutal attack in October 2010 (photo, his mugshot)

“When I turned around with my drink, he just, bang, hit the back of my head with a Budweiser bottle.

‘I put my hands on my head like that and it was blood, just clumps of blood. I will never, ever forget it. He put a blanket over my head and took me into the ambulance, but there were photographers everywhere and blood was running down my legs.

‘It was all over the papers, on the news and stuff. The hospital said, “Your extensions saved your life.”

The couple eventually split in 2007, with Richardson eventually going to jail for a separate attack on boxer Lee Siner.

Richardson was caught on camera assaulting Siner with a car lock after chasing him up the stairs and throwing a chair at him.

Richardson was caught on camera assaulting boxer Lee Siner (pictured) with a car lock after chasing him up the stairs and throwing a chair at him

Two other attackers then slashed at the victim, cutting off his upper arms and legs in a terrifying revenge attack after a minor dispute.

Siner was dining at the Kimos Mediterranean restaurant, near Toxteth, Liverpool, when he was ambushed by three masked men armed with a samurai sword and a baseball bat.

Richardson was jailed for eight and a half years for the attack in October 2010.

He dated Steven Gerrard’s wife Alex Curran until 2002, before dating Ellison and later Celebrity Big Brother winner Chantelle Houghton.