Coronation Street's Sally-Ann Matthews has played Jenny Connor since she was just 15 years old.
However, despite the show’s success and her character’s popularity, Sally Ann made the decision to quit back in 1993. Among her issues were balancing the tightrope of intense, household name-level fame with being a “normal teenager”.
School was a struggle, she said, as she couldn’t fit in, she was no longer an “ordinary” pupil, rather, a famous actress in the making. Also, after being called a "little pudding" by a well-known TV critic at the time – when critics were sometimes more famous than the actual actors – she developed an eating disorder.
READ MORE: Want more showbiz? Daily Star has just the thing for you!
READ MORE: Want more TV? Daily Star has just the thing for you!
She previously told the Daily Mirror previously: “For me, that was then eight months of active bulimia and then recovery.” Sally Ann, who is now married to lawyer Nick Rhodes, also said that it was impossible to date back then as she was too scared that any shenanigans would end up in the papers.
She said: "I never even went to a nightclub and snogged somebody because I thought they might sell a story." Since Sally Ann’s character Jenny was not entirely likeable, a lot of her peers assumed she was the same way. She recalled: “Also, everybody felt they knew you, and because you played a certain character that you were like that. That was hard.”
Fast-forward seven years to 1993 and the ambitious actress decided to cut her losses and leave the show in order to “gain respect” and prove to the world that she was not “just a soap actress”, rather, a serious thespian. Sally-Ann said at the time: "I thought I would go and do lots of regional theatre to earn my stripes and gain respect as a result. I didn't do panto and I turned down the offer of doing a record.
"I am not interested in being famous – I wanted to be 70 and still acting and I thought if I did all that, I wouldn't have a chance."
Roles in other British dramas followed, including The Bill, Doctors and Waterloo Road but Sally Ann decided to forge a massive Corrie comeback in 2015, with Jenny starting a relationship with Kevin Webster before trying to kidnap his son Jack. Explaining her decision to return, the mum-of-two said: "I thought, 'I am never going to get away from it. People still recognise me from it, I am dead proud to have been in it, so I should embrace it.'
“And that is when I started thinking about it differently." Another big bombshell in Sally-Ann’s life was actually learning she is related to one of her co-stars. During a special DNA secrets episode in 2018, it came out that she was the cousin of… soap legend Amanda Barrie, who played Alma Baldwin.
Have you joined Threads? Follow Daily Star to keep up to date on all things showbiz here
They were in the show together for four years and are close pals. She had no idea they were related but both share the same cheeky sense of humour and love of dancing.
Sally-Ann previously told Radio Times: “The joy when I saw it was Amanda was overwhelming and I thought, ‘well, of course it is, that all makes sense now.' We rarely had scenes together but, because of the way we worked back then, we were all in the rehearsal room together and knew everyone really well. I think we share a naughty, slightly bonkers streak."
Coronation Street airs Monday, Wednesday and Friday on ITV at 8pm
For more of the latest showbiz news from Daily Star, make sure you sign up to one of our newsletters here
Source: Read Full Article
