Coronation Street star Kimberly Hart-Simpson spoke about her pansexuality and private life away from the show. First appearing back in June 2020, Coronation Street actress Kimberly Hart-Simpson took on the role of Nicky Wheatley in the ITV soap opera.
After a short break, she's returning to the cobbles and is injecting a new lease of life into her character. During her first stint on the show was when she met widower Daniel, before having to leave four months later to start a new life with her daughter.
Now back working as a teaching assistant alongside him, viewers saw their relationship on the rocks. After Max overheard Daniel and his new girlfriend rowing in the street about his past relationship with Nicky, her previous career came to light.
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After Max leaks images of Nicky as a sex worker, she ends up losing her job with things going from bad to worse as they learn the Gazette is due to publish an article about her. Thankfully her off-screen life is much less dramatic Nicky's.
In an interview with the Manchester Evening News, she spoke about everything that keeps her sane and grounded away from the show. She said: "This is not for everyone, but I like vision boards, things that I want in my life I want to see in front of me on the daily - it gives me direction and purpose.
"On the day of getting the call about Corrie, I'd just done a vision board of the 10 things that I want in my life in general, and Corrie went back on there, and I pinned it up and I wrote the reason. "I wrote what it would feel like, how I got the call, what would happen next and who I told first - this is all part of something I read online."
She continued: "I did that, and within two hours I got the call to see whether I wanted to go back! "Whether that be the power of my boards, I don't know, but I think that solidified me, having that vision. "I make no secret of the fact that this is where I want to be in life. I love this show, and this has been by far the best job I've ever had."
In 2021 she revealed she was pansexual but said her coming out was met with endless abuse and jokes. Despite the hurtful nature of the comments, she said she took everything in her stride.
She said: "I've had a couple of memes. Me holding a Tefal pan, because I'm 'pan-sexual', but that's all right," she said. "People saying it's a stunt are not my problem. That's their problem."
Establishing her own fashion company, Kimberly is the head honcho in charge at Hart Work. Established in 2018, she went on to explain what made her pick up a sewing machine.
She added: "Working as a professional actor for over a decade, I picked up a sewing machine in 2018 when work was dry, but my creative mind wasn't! "Hours of YouTube videos and a couple of dodgy garms later, I discover I had the patience and steady hand to create.
"Fortunate enough to get my work on the red carpet at The Soap Awards 2018 I knew I had given birth to a new obsession; Hart-Work!" Kimberly went on to add that whilst away from Corrie she had been putting in shifts in the British Heart Foundation store.
"I've gone to their shops near me for years, not just to shop but to chat with the staff because I became friends with them," she told the Mirror. "The charity have done a big volunteering drive as the numbers of shop volunteers they had fell after lockdown, so I've been doing it around my schedule and it’s become a home from home to me."
Kimberly also revealed that her older sister Emma Simpson was diagnosed with a chronic heart condition a few years ago. She added that donations to the charity helped save her life as they go towards funding scientific research for new medicines and other treatments for people affected by heart problems.
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