Esther Hargrave ( Vanessa Hehir )

[lizann]

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.

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.

https://www.thesun.ie/tv/9511535/cor...star-newcomer/

[CorneliusBlanc]

Summer's biological mother maybe?

[lizann]

she was pushy for her baby, barely knowing her

[Perdita]

Summer's biological mother maybe?

. Online more and more speculation she is..

[Perdita]

https://www.digitalspy.com/soaps/cor...confirms-exit/


Coronation Street star Vanessa Hehir has confirmed her exit from the soap.

Taking to Instagram, the actor, who has been a guest star on the soap playing Esther Hargrave, posted a series of behind the scenes pictures from the show, expressing her thanks for the cast and crew and penning some final words for her time there.

Captioning the post, she wrote: "And just like that the Corrie adventure is over. I've truly had the most fun working with the best people and have made friends for life.

"It was worth the 30 years of auditioning since I was 11 to end up working with these phenomenal peeps. What a crazy ride it's been. Love you guys, @harrietanneb @james.t.craven and @tomlorcan who is definitely in my top 5 of TV husbands," she added.


Her co-stars took to the comments to express their love for her during her short stint, with Harriet Bibby writing: "Absolutely LOVED every minute," with a bunch of kisses while Jack James Ryan wrote: "You killed it! Short but sweet. Big love xxx."

The actor had been playing Esther on the soap since September 2022, and was always meant to have a short stint as she was a guest character for Summer Spellman's controversial surrogacy storyline, which came to a head this week.

Esther and husband Mike had struck a deal with troubled pregnant teen Summer (Bibby) to take on her baby.

Summer had suffered through a miscarriage but chose not to tell the couple. But when she discovered that Mike had a secret son from a past relationship, she decided to use that information as leverage to get out of this deal.

However, when Mike found out, he locked Summer ? who is diabetic ? up in their house. She passed out, and then Esther called an ambulance when she found her, ultimately leading to the truth coming out.


Does this mean Mike will still be around?