Coronation Street cast Waterloo Road star as newcomer to the cobbles – 5 years after her real-life husband appeared
HEARTBEAT actress Vanessa Hehir has landed a role in Coronation Street.
The 41-year-old, who also starred in Waterloo Road, has been cast as one of Billy’s parishioners.
Vanessa, who is best known for playing Rosie Cartwright on ITV’s Heartbeat from 2001 - 2007, will arrive as a character called Esther Hargrave later this month.
Insiders tell The Sun: "She'll be onscreen for a while now".
Vanessa, who appeared in 72 episodes of Heartbeat, played Sue Lowsley on BBC school drama Waterloo Road.
The actress has also appeared in a recurring role on Emmerdale between 2010 - 2011 and Welsh comedy series Stella and Hollyoaks.
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The actress also has a connection to Corrie - as her real life husband Leon Ockenden appeared on the soap back in 2016 as Michelle Connor’s creepy boyfriend turned stalker Will Chatterton.
The pair both starred on Waterloo Road together and their characters ended up having an illicit affair.
Speaking in the past about working with him on sex scenes, Vanessa said: “I was sick to the pit of my stomach when we had intimate scenes together.
“It just somehow feels different with my actual husband, even a bit weirder than with an actor you don’t know.
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“On the one hand, I was thinking, ‘I hope my child never sees this’, but on the other hand it was kind of fun. And I never thought we’d have the opportunity to work together on a storyline like that. It’s a dream come true.”
