Stage actress Claire Sweeney has come a long way since her days on Brookside, with fans watching her battle with money problems, heartbreak and a failed engagement.
The actress, who will be joining Coronation Street this evening (Wed 28 June), has a hugely successful career that's seen her on stage opposite Patrick Swayze and seen her come a long way since her first major role was as Lindsey Corkhill in the soap opera Brookside.
Claire, 52, has suffered some daunting setbacks along her career including splitting from her ex-fiancé as well as being forced to sell her much-loved Spanish home in Mallorca after earning hugely less than she anticipated.
Money trouble
Whilst Claire at one point had a glittering career on stage after her time on TV, it's not always been such heady heights of stardom. The star has also found herself needing to find cash quickly, as she did in 2021 when she made less than £5000 last year after her income was 'decimated'.
With lockdown blocking her from her usual performing slots on stage and on screen, Claire saw her income disappear seemingly overnight. She was left living on the income from selling her Mallorca villa in 2019.
In an interview with The Sunday Times, she was exactly how much she earned in 2021. She said: "Under £5,000. Our industry was decimated. Thankfully I'd sold a house in Spain, in 2019, so I was blessed that I could sit it out comfortably.
"It was a big house in Mallorca that I'd bought in 2004 for €690,000 (£580,000). It broke my heart to sell but it was on its own grounds, and my little boy didn't want that - he wanted to be with other kids."
Open to dating and single mum life
Whilst her career has had highs and lows, so has Claire's love life with the star now announcing she is ready to find love again after going separate ways from her former fiancé Daniel Reilly back in 2015 following the birth of their son Jaxon.
In an interview with OK magazine, she revealed: "I’m open to dating but at the moment I’m so busy with Jaxon and Corrie and everything else.
"If I met someone amazing then that would be lovely but it’s out of my hands."
Speaking in another interview with the Liverpool Echo, Claire also explained that she always has her son Jaxon, now eight, at the front of her mind when it comes to dating and work.
She said: "I'm a single mum and my decisions are not only based on the love of what I do but they're based on stability for me and my son. I'm 52 years of age now. Not only is it the best soap, and not only is she a wonderful part but having stability for a while just comes at the right time as well.
"Not touring in a musical in a different place every week. I get to have my full weekends with my boy now, which is lovely."
Joining Coronation Street
Claire joins the famous cobbles of Weatherfield as she takes up her new role as Tyrone Dobbs' long-lost mother Cassandra Plummer.
Looking a far cry from her usual glamorous self, the new role has been "a baptism of fire" according to Claire with huge scenes and tricky storylines already being handed to her.
Speaking to OK! Magazine, Claire described her first days on the Corrie set as contrasting.
Claire said: "The first day I didn’t say anything but on my second day I had a massive scene – a 14-page two-hander with Dame Maureen Lipman – so that was a baptism of fire.
"That was my first time speaking and I was very nervous but I was very prepared."
Claire, who has mainly worked in theatre and on stage in recent years, jumped at the chance to rejoin the small screen as she explained: "I still had that hunger to land that one plum, dramatic screen role and it takes that one person to believe in you and that was Iain for taking a chance on me."
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