Kym Marsh has revealed the secret tribute she played to the baby son she lost at birth while filming recent tragic scenes for Coronation Street.
The actress bravely played out the death of her character Michelle’s stillborn Ruairi in a plot that echoed her personal tragedy.
Naturally her own experience was never far from her thoughts during filming of this heartbreaking story.
Now the show favourite has talked about how she honoured her baby Archie in one of the most devastating scenes.
During her acceptance speech at this week’s prestigious TRIC Awards, where she won Best Soap Personality, the XX-year-old explained: “The chain I am wearing now is the chain you saw Michelle wrap around Ruairi’s wrist, but my children bought me this for Mother’s Day last year to represent Archie.
“It’s the exact same chain, so that was a really poignant moment for me.
“I’ve worn this as Michelle since my children gave it to me, so it was a coincidence really in a sense that they wanted Michelle to wrap it around the wrist of the baby.”
The former pop star paid tribute to her co-star Simon Gregson, who plays husband Steve, and the soap’s bosses.
“This was a storyline that was very close to my heart, and Simon’s. We said from the start that if we were going to do it, we’re going to do it. We’re going to tell the story and tell it properly,” she continued.
“We are not going to have her lose her baby one week and then the next she’s okay. I was prepared for that and the show really looked after me.”
Kym later tweeted her gratitude for the prestigious award.
Meanwhile, on-screen Michelle is taking some satisfaction from wrecking Leanne’s happiness.
Still raging over Steve fathering her so-called friend’s baby Oliver, she was livid to find he had uploaded a picture of him, Liz and his son together to social media.
Knowing Nick is desperate to stop Steve having anything to do with the baby he is supposed to be raising as his own, Michelle forwarded him the incriminating snap.
This resulted in a row between him and Leanne – and Nick thanking her for the heads up.
Michelle then menacingly teased that she hadn’t even got started with causing mischief yet.
“She’s getting her feistiness back,” Kym warned. “When she first came into the show – many years ago now – she was very feisty back then.
“She met and fell in love with Steve, and he’s over the years taken that away from her.”