Corrie's Leanne's life off-screen - Emmerdale hubby, real name and tragic loss

01 September 2023 , 17:00

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Jane has been playing Leanne for years (Image: ITV)

Jane Danson has been playing Leanne Battersby on Coronation Street since she was just 18 years old and she joined the cast in 1997. The actress has become known for playing the 'gobby' character on the Cobbles although she admits that she initially struggled to cope with her fame. After becoming a star so quickly as a teen, the 44-year-old locked herself away, afraid to leave her house for a year.

Her Corrie co-stars partied and went to clubs, but Danson feared that the public would abuse her for being the "neighbour from hell" on the soap. She previously told the Mirror: "My contract was initially for three months - I never expected the Battersbys to be so big. In fact, a Teletext poll when we joined said 97% of viewers wanted Corrie to get rid of us!"

She continued: "I couldn't cope with it. I had this amazing job, and by 19 had my own little house, but I just sat inside. I'd be scared of someone throwing a drink in my face. Coping with the attention was terrifying, so I just sort of stayed at home, ate biscuits, and put on a stone. It was good in one sense. You are young and earning money, there are parties, drinks, and other things. So my relationship with my barrel of biscuits was pretty okay!"

Jane landed her Coronation Street role in 1997 (Granada Television)

Before becoming Leanne, Danson had been a child star. Born in Bury, Danson, whose real name is Jane Elizabeth Dawson, made her TV debut at the age of 12 as Eileen Critchley in GBH. She trained at the Oldham Theatre Workshop with Antony Cotton, and previously appeared in the ITV show Children's Ward and Out of Tune, before landing roles in the first episode of the BBC's Hetty Wainthropp Investigates, and the ITV period drama series The Grand.

As a youngster, she had a crush on actor Robert Beck whom she met at the first-ever Soap Awards back in 1999. Rob was in rival soap Emmerdale at the time as Gavin Ferris, an ex of Bernice Blackstock but he has also previously appeared in Coronation Street, where he played a man called Jimmy, the henchman of Tony Gordon.

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When Danson spotted him at the event, she knew she had to go and introduce herself. She recalled: "I'm not the world's most confident person but I'd had a crush on Rob since I was 15, so I thought, I have to speak to him, it's fate." While Rob said: "We met at the first ever Soap Awards back in 1999. I was in Emmerdale at the time. Jane came over and introduced herself."

The pair married in 2005 and have remained together since then, going on to have two sons. Speaking of her husband, Danson told the Mirror: "Rob's absolutely my best friend in the world. We've only had about two rows in twenty years. I'm not saying we don't get on each other's nerves sometimes but we're a strong team and we've always allowed each other to be individuals." She added: "We deal with things together. We have been through good times and some really upsetting times. We wrote our own wedding vows and one was to go off and do our own things which is important."

The actress admitted she'd had a crush on Robert since she was 15 (Getty Images)

The pair have been married since 2005 (Getty Images)

The couple have had many highs in their relationship, but have also endured some tough times, including a tragic loss in 2018. The pair had been hoping for a third child and had conceived, before discovering they'd had a miscarriage during the first trimester. Danson discussed her heartbreak in the Channel 5 documentary Miscarriage: Our Story. She said: "At our 12-week scan, I remember lying down and the consultant said, 'I won't turn the screen around', then the room went really quiet and I just knew that something wasn't right." In tears, she continued: "My heart sank because I knew that it had gone wrong, that the baby had died and then they confirmed that."

Things became more complicated for Danson when she had to take part in a miscarriage storyline involving Steve McDonald and his wife Michelle, played by Kym Marsh. Her character Leanne had just had a baby on the show, while Michelle had miscarried. "When we first started, it was still really raw for me," admitted Danson. But she's since found "peace with it", adding: "I get to hug these most beautiful babies. I love babies. They make me broody."

Danson has shared how she still struggles a little with fame as it can be overwhelming, and she doesn't appreciate the scrutiny over her appearance. She previously had fans sharing concern over her weight, claiming she was too thin, which she found "upsetting" but mostly she tries not to let it bother her as it's her acting that matters most to the star. She told the Mirror: "It is upsetting, but I am not trying to be thin and I am not starving myself. I have two young children and I'm running around like a lunatic half the time. I'm up very early for filming and I've had some pretty big storylines to deal with.

"The filming schedule has been really gruelling. That's why I look tired and drawn on screen. I look like a panda with these great black circles around my eyes. It's like I could have been punched in the face! The other night I watched Corrie in HD but I saw how tired I looked and I switched it back to the normal channel – I hate it! The last time I was this thin was when my son Sam was diagnosed with silent reflux – a painful condition that is similar to heartburn – and I was really stressed out. I was eating but I was running about and the baby weight just dropped off. I went back to work after five months and it was hard juggling two kids, but I put on weight when things started to calm down."

Outside of acting, Danson says she and Beck's weekends are often "ruled" by taking their children to birthday parties. She added: "Then me and my husband Robert like to take them to the park and go bike riding. I also hang out with a lovely group of school mums." And she's also previously confessed to forming a club with fellow mums on the Corrie set to help them all enjoy a night out.

Danson and her castmates set up a 'going out' club to ease the demands of juggling motherhood and the Street. Back in 2011, she said: "It's usually me, Samia Smith, Alison King, Julia Haworth, Jenny Platt and Tina O'Brien. Hopefully, we'll get Kym out later in the year. It's great to let our hair down."

Courtney Pochin