She has been married twice, first to actor Brian Deacon (4 June 1977 – 1987), with whom she had one daughter, Lara Parker Deacon, and secondly, to actor Dennis Waterman, from 3 January 1987 until 31 March 1998. Both marriages ended in divorce. She and Waterman met on the set of Minder in 1982. Her marriage to Waterman ended because of his violent behaviour towards her and in March 2012 he caused controversy with some comments on that aspect of their relationship: "‘It’s not difficult for a woman to make a man hit her. She certainly wasn’t a beaten wife, she was hit and that’s different."Rula Lenska said that she was relieved that he had now admitted beating her.