Coronation Street star Jane Danson appeared on Wednesday’s Loose Women to celebrate 20 years on the cobbles. While chatting to the hosts, the actress, who plays Leanne Battersby on the long-running show, revealed that working with co-star Kym Marsh in the soap’s recent stillbirth storyline helped her open up about her tragic miscarriage. Kym’s character Michelle O'Connor lost her baby in harrowing scenes, while Leanne gave birth to a healthy baby boy – both of whom were fathered by Steve McDonald.
Tragically, all three actors have experienced their own real life heartache. Kym sadly lost her baby son Archie back in 2009, while Simon Gregson recently revealed that his wife Emma has suffered 11 miscarriages during their 17-year marriage.
Jane has been on Coronation Street for 20 years
Until the storyline, Jane admitted that she had previously chosen to stay quiet about her past tragedy, telling the hosts: “As a person I’m quite an emotional person, I wear my heart on my sleeve, but that was something that I chose to keep to myself because it was my own personal journey.”
However, working with Kym proved to be cathartic. “But then this storyline came up and Kym and I had never really worked together before, and we knew that what we had both been through – it was going to be tough,” she said. “In a way it helped me because I’d never talked about it before. It was like therapy.
"And Kym was very supportive, even though she’d been through a devastating experience herself.
"I suppose because we had all been through that experience in different ways, we could relate to it.”
While on the show, Jane also received a surprise video message from her soap sister, Georgia Taylor, who plays Toyah Battersby - who was currently enjoying a holiday in Barcelona.
STORY: Kym Marsh shares agony over losing baby son Archie
Meanwhile, Kym recently told The Sun that while mirroring her own tragic experience in the soap was painful, she wanted to help other women affected by the issue. “I wanted to help women like me, and I wanted to honour Archie. I knew it would be really painful but this is an issue that affects thousands of families every year and it's something that often isn't talked about. I wanted to show people all of those little things that really hurt me. Michelle heard other babies crying on the ward, and that's exactly what happened to me."