BRINGING new life into the world will not bring out the best in Corrie superbitch Tracy Barlow.

Toxic Tracy is carrying Steve McDonald’s twins but it will take more than impending motherhood to mellow the murderer.

But that’s fine by Kate Ford who has played man-eating Tracy for 10 years and wants her to continue her wicked ways.

She insisted: “I wouldn’t want to lose that. Tracy is not a sensible or nice person, so it wouldn’t make any sense to change her.

“She’s brash, she speaks her mind, she always wants her own way and she doesn’t care who she hurts in the process.”

Kate, 34, believes Corrie fans may glimpse a gentler side but added: “She’ll still have her moments of pure vileness. She’s the same person – you wouldn’t want to cross her.”


Modest Kate loves playing Tracy but admits it is not always easy being so confident and sharp-tongued.

Kate confesses she’s a worrier and said: “If you are anxious and nervous it’s more difficult playing a confident person. If you’re nervous it’s easier to play a nervous person because you are genuinely anxious.

“But if I’m feeling nervous it’s tough, as I’ve got to get over it and not let it show.

“I love being an actress but I do find it quite a stressful career. Some days I find that quite difficult as I’m not a confident, showy person.”

Kate has suffered panic attacks since she was 16. “I’ve had more since I got older and got more responsibility – looking after myself, having a child, paying a mortgage.

Seduced

“But I’ve learnt how to cope better, to let it pass and float above it.”

Kate divides her time between Coronation Street’s Manchester studios and South London where she lives with her husband, TV director and producer Jon Connerty, 33, and their son Otis, aged three.

It’s a far cry from her alter ego’s complex home life. Single mum Tracy lives with her parents Deirdre and Ken and her daughter Amy – the result of a one-night stand with Rovers boss Steve.


Kate Ford marries John Connerty

Earlier this year with Steve vulnerable after the break-up of his marriage to Becky, wily Tracy seduced him and ended up pregnant again.

She’s delighted, secretly hoping the baby will help her and Steve be a proper couple, but the news that she’s *expecting two children leaves her reeling.

Kate says: “Tracy is mortified when she first finds out she is expecting twins as she really does not know how she is going to cope, even with Steve’s support. He has his businesses to run and is not going to be around 24 hours a day.”

Kate hopes she would manage better with such news herself but is not *thinking about having more children at the moment. “I would like to have more kids in the future but if I found I was expecting twins we would be thrilled. It might be a shock at first though.”

Kate and Jon juggle looking after their son between them. Despite spending her working week in Manchester, Kate says the longest she’s been away from Otis in one stretch is four days. She’s so happy with the set-up that she’s committed herself to Corrie until at least the end of 2012.

“Luckily Jon is a really hands-on dad, so when I’m away he takes over,” she explains. “He makes TV documentaries and he’ll do a project and then be at home for six weeks and then do another one.”

Jon is also developing a dating website – www.iclockedyou.com – inspired by the couple’s own romantic meeting. “We were chatting about how we got together and the fact that if he hadn’t given his phone number to a waitress in a bar to pass on to me, then I’d never have met him,” Kate explains.

“It takes confidence to chat up someone in a bar and it can feel a bit cheesy. The idea is that if you get home and think: ‘oh no, I wished I’d said something,’ you can go on to the site and put where you were and what time, so the other person can find you. You get a second chance.”

Since making that call and having her son, Kate’s life has been transformed but she has maintained her enviable size 8-10 figure through sensible eating and moderate exercise. “Before Otis I had a lot more time and used to go to aerobics but recently I’ve started to swim a couple of times a week.

“I am careful with my food too – if I’ve eaten a lot in one meal, I’ll tone it down a bit in the next one. I’m lucky that my weight is fairly consistent though.

“I’m probably half a stone heavier than I was before I had Otis.”

Kate feels strongly there is far too much pressure on women to be slim.

Bizarre

“Us women should give ourselves a break. The only people putting pressure on us to look gorgeous is ourselves. I don’t know why we’re doing it and I think we should all just stop it and relax.

“If you look at the old paintings, cellulite was considered attractive. So why do we now think it is ugly?

“It’s because pharmaceutical companies make a lot of money out of telling us it’s ugly. It’s just dimpled skin – babies have it and it’s beautiful.” Kate, the only child of businessman Les and special needs teacher Gill, grew up in Salford, Manchester, then moved to the Lake District.

From 12 she started writing to Corrie’s casting director begging for a job. Her dream almost came true at 15 when she appeared as an extra selling a pop concert programme to Simon Gregson, who plays Steve.

“It was a blink and you’ll miss my part, I didn’t have any lines, but I was really excited. Steve was at a pop *concert with his then wife Vicky. It’s bizarre that all these years later we’ve ended up as a screen couple – I sometimes think about it. Life’s weird isn’t it?”

She graduated from a London stage school in 2000 and her first job was in a Beatles’ video.

“I’m very proud of that. It was the video for Free as a Bird, which I think is pretty cool. I was only about 19 when I did it. Sir Paul McCartney was at the auditions eating his lunch when I walked in. He was tired *because he’d been there all day but he was really nice.” Kate cleaned houses, *waitressed and even gave horse-riding lessons in London’s Hyde Park to make ends meet and, after small TV parts, including Bianca’s friend Sophie in EastEnders, landed the part of Tracy.

Since then we’ve seen Tracy murder her ex, Charlie Stubbs, drug Roy Cropper and lure him into bed, attempt to sell baby Amy to the Croppers and seduce a whole host of men, including Dev, Steve and Frank, and not forgetting half brothers Nick Tilsley and David Platt within 48 hours.

Yet asked to recall her most *embarrassing scene none of her screen romances come close. “It was giving birth to Amy. Afterwards I had to record *birthing noises for them to insert where they needed more noise,” she says.

“There was a whole male crew standing around, while I stood there making *groaning noises. It was awful. It was like When Harry Met Sally! God forbid I have to do that again when Tracy’s twins are born. I’ll suggest they just go to the archive.”

The People