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Daily Mirror
Daily Mirror
Entertainment
Victoria Johns

Real life of Corrie's Tracy Barlow actress from famous ex to painful health condition

Coronation Street's Kate Ford made her debut on the soap in 2002.

The actress, 46, plays scheming Tracy Barlow - the daughter of Ken and Deidre.

From murder to blackmail, Tracy has caused quite a ruccus on the cobbles, not least when she whacked Charlie Stubbs over the head after giving him a lap dance.

The role won Kate the Best Soap B***h gong at the Inside Soap Awards, however, off-screen, the actress' life couldn't be more different.

Here's the lowdown on what we know.

Famous ex

The actress dated BAFTA nominated actor Bart Ruspoli, who had a brief stint on EastEnders, for a short while in 2000.

The couple didn't date for long, but Bart's now-wife Vanessa Ruspoli shared the snap of Kate and her husband, taken when they were in a relationship.

Deciding to repost the photo on her Instagram, Kate wrote "I love this!! When your ex’s wife posts a celebratory photo of you and her husband (I love them both) from 1997 you realise how life can (sometimes) come full circle in gorgeous ways you at one point, couldn’t imagine xx."

Marriage breakdown

In 2007, Kate married TV producer John Connerty and gave birth to their first child, Otis James, a year later in 2008.

The actress hasn't been publicly linked to anyone since her divorce (Instagram)

However, the marriage broke down and they called it a day five years later in 2013.

At the time, Kate admitted the split had been “incredibly painful”, but said she was trying to focus on her career to take her mind off of things.

She told the Sun: “We really tried hard to make it work. But it came to the point when we knew we had to get a divorce.

“Things had changed and it wasn’t what it was. But it was incredibly painful. For a while after we split, I found it hard to get out of bed.”

Since her split from her husband, Kate hasn’t been publicly linked to anyone - although it may be she prefers to keep her private life out of the spotlight.

Painful health condition

Kate has been open about her painful health condition in a bid to help other women who are suffering.

The actress suffers from endometriosis, a condition which affects the uterus, ovaries and fallopian tubes, and has admitted that it sometimes affects her while she's working on Corrie.

In a bid to raise awareness about the condition, Kate posted a selfie photo of her wearing a red jacket with a Coronation Street badge embossed onto it to Instagram.

She captioned the post: "Filming #itvcorrie this was a few weeks ago at a time that I was struggling with my #endometriosis, luckily got lots of support x

"Just sending a hug out to all those struggling with similar."

Kate's Corrie pals shared messages of support, with Shobna Gulati, who previously played Sunita Alahan, writing "you are so strong xxx and beautiful" while Samia Longchambon - plays Maria Connor- sent a heart and hug emoji.

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