This article contains Coro spoilers that some viewers might want to avoid.
Coronation Street star Simon Gregson has hit out at internet trolls this week, after appearing in a storyline very close to his heart.
The actor, who plays Steve McDonald in the soap, has just appaered in a storyline where he and Kym Marsh (who plays Michelle McDonald) lose their baby son at 23 weeks.
The storyline is an intensely personal one for the actors, who have both experienced the loss of babies.
And Simon, who has three children with his wife Emma, was forced to act when a twitter troll attacked her online – although it isn’t clear exactly what they said.
In response, Simon told the troll: “To the £&)(; who tweeted my wife. We’ve lost 11 baby’s 1st being 21 weeks 4 days. Maybe think or do your research before tweeting someone.”
Speaking to The Mirror about the storyline and his own experience, he said: “As a bloke being there and witness to all this, you feel completely helpless. Your wife who has carried the baby and has not given birth to the baby. Then there’s all the stuff that goes along with being a human being – the chemical reaction, everything that goes on in your brain. The hormones and all that kind of stuff. The bloke’s completely helpless. What’s he supposed to do but support?”
Meanwhile, Gregson’s co-star Kym Marsh also has experience in the area, having lost her baby son Archie when he was born 18 weeks premature in 2009.
It was this that motivated her to take on the storyline, she told The Sun.
“I remember having quite a long conversation with my mum and she said to me, ‘What is your gut instinct? Because that’s usually the right one.’ I said it was to do this, and she asked why. And I said, ‘Because I’ve always tried to do my bit for charities that fund research or help people to discuss and talk and heal around baby loss.’”
Marsh was also consulted on the script for the storyline, which she said was important for her to say yes to it.
As part of the consultation process, Kym was adamant the soap didn’t use the phrase “late term miscarriage” as she said this really upset her during her own experience.
The couple were highly praised for their portrayal of the storyline, which aired in the UK on Jan 12
“That was one of the things that really annoyed and angered me because I had just given birth to a baby.
“I didn’t miscarry my baby, I gave birth to him. Why is there no birth certificate? What? Because he didn’t survive? What is that? When I am not here anymore, nobody will know that my baby existed.
“That is the thing that upsets a lot of women, that thing that they can’t have a birth certificate.”
Kym says she took the storyline to honour her baby son Archie, who she had with former partner, Jamie Lomas.
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