She sent fans wild back in January when she was seen on the Coronation Street cobbles for the first time in years - but fans of the ITV soap shouldn’t expect Brooke Vincent to return to the street full-time any time soon.
The actress is famed for playing Sophie Webster and, while she is no longer under contract with the ITV soap, the door has been left open for her character to return after Sophie left in the back of a taxi in October 2019.
Her exit from Weatherfield came ahead of the birth of her first child, Mexx, who was born in October, 2019. Then, in May 2021, Brooke gave birth to her second son, Monroe, with her footballer fiancé Kean Bryan.
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Asked about returning to Corrie back in August 2021, Brooke said: "I’m just being a mum and getting myself back and trying to get us into a routine and focusing on them. It’s kind of a decision that we made as a family and it’s just nice to have that special time with them without having major distractions."
And, speaking exclusively to the Manchester Evening News after her first big job since leaving the long-running show was announced, 30-year-old Brooke was honest about how the soap’s busy schedule doesn’t fit in with her life right now.
It comes as Brooke has admitted she’s ‘nervous’ but can’t wait to get stuck in, as she swaps the small screen for the airwaves by joining the team at Hits Radio. The Audenshaw-born star was this week announced as the new host for Hits Radio’s evening show, covering for Gemma Atkinson whilst she takes a break to have her baby.
The news follows speculation about who was to fill in for Gemma - due to give birth to her second child, a baby boy, with Strictly Come Dancing star fiancé Gorka Marquez this summer. The 38-year-old enjoyed her last show last week.
“The thing is with this, I’ve never had a job that has a start time and an end time,” she said. “My Corrie day could have looked like absolutely anything between seven and seven so I could have been there for an hour or I could have been there all day. But I know with this, I know exactly what is going on and I think at the minute, with the age that my boys are, it does really, really help to know that between four and seven this is where I am going to be.”
But will a Corrie return ever be back on the cards? “Corrie is like home,” Brooke told us. “There’s a lot of people there that I love and I respect and when I nip in and see them I get such FOMO [fear of missing out] because I absolutely love it. It’s like anything you love and the people you love.
“It’s just not doable for me at the minute with the boys and you know, from being the age of 11 I’ve kind of put Corrie first and I just felt like it was time to put my family first for a little bit and that’s kind of what I have done. But now I’ve got this [Hits Radio] I’ve got no room to go back to Corrie!”
And Brooke is also in no rush to tie the knot. Brooke and footballer Kean were showered with congratulations last April after sharing the happy news that they had got engaged. The former soap star announced that the couple were getting married with a sweet Instagram post.
"Coming soon ...the Bryans," Brooke wrote with an engagement ring and church emoji, toasting their engagement on Instagram as she thanked well-wishers. Smiling in a pink off-the-shoulder top and jeans, Brooke sat alongside her man as they both held a glass of pink fizz. She wrote: "Mrs B to be. Thank you to everybody who has messaged and shown us love 17/04/22."
However, walking down the aisle is currently at the top of Brooke’s priority list - as she told us there’s something else she’d like to do first.
“We’re not planning yet. It’s just chaos with the boys. We need to get the boys christened first, that’s the first thing I want to do then I’ll figure out about getting married.
“I think it’s always the same, when you’ve got children, a house and things like that and obviously a career, I feel like everything gets put on the back burner. It doesn’t really bother us that we’ve been engaged for a year or it might be three years or whatever. Just whenever the time will come.” She added: “Obviously it’s lovely to get married but it’s not, ‘we need to get married!’”
Back to her new radio gig and Brooke has previously co-hosted specials for the station before, but from Monday, June 5, she’ll be on air every weekday, live from Manchester, presenting alongside Mike Toolan, who she worked with before on Key 103 back in 2016.
Speaking exclusively to the Manchester Evening News about her new gig, Brooke said she is “very nervous” as the reality sets in but she’s also “very excited”. She said: “I’ve obviously listened, I know Gem, I know Mike and yeah, I’ve listened for a while and now I’m like, ‘Oh my gosh,’ that’s going to be me.”
Brooke wasn’t just given the call to join straightaway, as she had to go through an audition process first. “There were was a few people… Obviously because it’s such a big show and because it’s such a length of time as well,” she told us.
Despite having had experience in radio before, Brooke does admit to feeling like a newbie and will be calling on Gemma for advice.
“I literally said to Gemma, ‘What am I going to do? I’m really nervous. I’ll be texting her saying, ‘Gemma, can you tell me what I need to do now please?’
"But it’s really exciting and the drive team are amazing and Hits Radio is on the up at the minute, which is really nice. So it’s nice to join a big group of people that are just absolutely smashing it.”
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