Actress Kym Marsh’s comeback TV role will come naturally to her, she says, because she’s playing a single mum.
The star, about to return to screens as dinnerlady Nicky in Waterloo Road, fell pregnant at 18 and raised son David and daughter Emilie on her own.
Now preparing to return to our screens in the BBC drama set in a troubled comp, the 46-year-old reveals she has plenty in common with single mum character Nicky.
The ex-Hear’Say singer says: “I was a single parent for many years when David and Emilie were little. I didn’t have anybody. I struggled to make ends meet. I begged and borrowed from family and friends to help me.
“Yes, there are elements of Nicky that I get and understand as I’ve been there too.”
Life as a solo parent was tough surviving on £80 a week on a council estate – before everything changed when Kym found pop fame and landed a part on Coronation Street.
Her eldest two kids, with ex Dave Cunliffe, are now 27 and 25, while the star also has daughter Polly, 11, from her marriage to Hollyoaks actor Jamie Lomas. The award-winner married Scott Ratcliff, 34 – a major in the Parachute Regiment – in 2021.
She adds: “Nicky hasn’t always had it easy, she has struggled over the years.
“She owns her own salon, she had to close that down because of the pandemic. That’s very current.
“She’s struggling to make ends meet, she’s a single parent, she’s trying to hold down several jobs to make sure her children don’t go without. It’s very relatable right now with the cost-of-living crisis.
Detailing her struggles, Kym says at her lowest points she had to share packets of nappies with her sister and stay with her parents when she didn’t have enough money to top up the electric meter.
But she insists her kids were always well-clothed and fed.
It goes some way to explaining why Kym now doesn’t turn down any opportunity – earning her
the label of one of the hardest working women in television.
Now a grandmother of three, last year she juggled raising her family, presenting BBC’s Morning Live and filming Waterloo Road with getting to the quarter-final of Strictly Come Dancing, partnered by pro dancer Graziano Di Prima.
She quips: “My life, quiet? You’re joking aren’t you?
“When I’m asked what I’m watching I say the inside of my eyelids.
“I like to keep busy. I’m fortunate to have had work over the past few years. More of the same, please.” Waterloo Road, also starring Angela Griffin as head teacher Kim Campbell, is Kym’s first major TV role since leaving Corrie in 2019 after 13 years as Michelle Connor.
She found fame on 2001 talent show Popstars and later topped the charts with Hear’Say, .
She says: “Acting is my first love. It’s part of me. I come to life when I’m acting. I feel like there’s lots more out there for women of my age.
“Dramas are coming up with big roles for women. It’s exciting.
“Times are changing and it’s great to see. Long may it continue.”
