Coronation Street star Jane Danson has praised Kym Marsh's depiction of a grieving mother, admitting that it helped her mourn the loss of her own baby when she suffered a miscarriage.
Appearing on Loose Women, the actress opened up about how watching scenes of Kym Marsh in her stillbirth storyline felt like 'therapy' and helped with her grieving process after losing her own baby years previously.
Kym filmed some heartbreaking scenes in her role as Michelle Connor, giving a moving portrayal of losing her character's baby at 22 weeks. At the time Kym herself hit headlines as the storyline somewhat mirrored her real life experience, as she sadly suffered a stillbirth with her son Archie.
Jane, who plays Leanne Battersby on the soap, praised her co-star for her acting and opened up about her own experience of loss.
The ITV star has two children Harry, 10, and Alfie, eight, with her husband Robert but explained that she had previously miscarried - something she had always kept to herself before the show's storyline.
'I'd been through that experience, but I'd kept it to myself and hadn't spoken about it before that storyline came up.
'Kym and I had never really worked together before, but we knew what we'd be going through as we'd both had those experiences.'
Jane continued to explain how she and Kym became closer as they were able to relate to each other's grief.
'In a way it helped me because I'd never talked about it before. It was like therapy.
'And Kym was very supportive, even though she'd been through that sad experience herself.'
Jane was involved in a pregnancy storyline in Autumn last year and admitted she found it difficult. It was only as this storyline was emerging that she originally spoke out about her own miscarriage.
At the time she said, 'I kind of feel in a good place to say it, but I actually did lose a baby a couple of years ago. So [Leanne's pregnancy] does make me quite sad.
'I've been asked the inevitable questions over and over, "Would you have another baby?" and I just feel now it's a good time to say that it is close to my heart.'
Coronation Street is on ITV on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays, tune in to see if Jane Danson is Leaving the cobbles? And will Leanne Battersby ever return.
