Samia Longchambon has revealed she suffered a miscarriage before welcoming her first child with husband Sylvain.
The Coronation Street actress, who is mother to daughter Freya, 10, from a previous relationship, and son Yves, four, said she has never spoken about the ordeal but relived it when her character Maria Connor went through a similar experience earlier this year.
In January, audiences saw Maria go through a miscarriage with her boyfriend Gary Windass, played by Mikey North.
Longchambon told The Sun On Sunday’s Fabulous magazine: “I unfortunately went through it myself and miscarried.
“It was about five-and-a-half years ago, before I got pregnant with Yves. I’ve never spoken about it before.”
Longchambon, who has been married to the Dancing On Ice professional skater since 2016 after they met on the show in 2013, said she went back to work straight after it happened.
She added: “I have health anxiety, so I’ve always liked to have early scans in my pregnancies.
“I hadn’t experienced any bleeding or anything. It was called a missed miscarriage, which is when your body thinks you’re still pregnant. I had to have a procedure.
“Corrie didn’t know because I’d not told anyone at work about my miscarriage. They were quite shocked because I still went to work afterwards. In a way, (filming) was actually quite cathartic, because I don’t think I fully ever got to grips with what happened.
“That’s why, with this story line, I really wanted to get it right – for me and my own personal story, and also for all women that have been through it, watching it with their families.
“I got so many messages from other women, which makes it all worthwhile. A lot of women were saying ‘thank you’. I didn’t want to upset people, because I know how I’d feel watching it.”
Longchambon added: “As horrible as they are to go through, and they really are, I got pregnant three months later and had a really good pregnancy.”
Her daughter Freya, who she shares with ex-husband Matt Smith, was born in October 2000 and her son Yves was born in September 2015.