Kym Marsh celebrates her late son Archie’s birthday every year and does everything she can to keep the tot’s memory alive.
The 40-year-old actress has opened up about the loss of her and her ex-husband Jamie Lomas’ baby who was born 18 weeks premature in February 2009 and died moments after entering the world in the wake of her heartbreaking performance as bereaved mother Michelle Connor in ‘Coronation Street’.
In scenes which aired on the ITV soap on Wednesday night (11.01.17), Michelle and her partner Steve McDonald (Simon Gregson) were left devastated she suffered a late miscarriage and lost her baby prompting an outpouring of praise for their acting on social media from viewers.
Kym admits the storyline brought back lots of painful memories for her but she has revealed she does all she can to make Archie part of her family and urged any women going through the same tragedy to do the same.
Speaking on ‘This Morning’, the brunette star – who has grown-up children David and Emilie from her previous relationship with Dave Cunliffe and five-year-old daughter Polly from her marriage to Jamie – said: "I gave birth to my son, he was in my arms, he was here … We celebrate Archie’s birthday every year, and I do very much mean celebrate the fact that he was a part of or life. Polly knows all about him, she’s almost six now, but she knows who Archie is and she knows he was her brother. We all see Polly very much as a gift from Archie because what happened to me showed me that something was wrong and without knowing that something was wrong nobody would’ve intervened and helped along the way with Polly. We celebrate him so much, and so we should, our baby was here."
Kym also participated in a phone-in with hosts Phillip Schofield and Holly Willoughby and agony aunt Deidre Sanders for mothers who have lost children.
Responding to one caller whom shared that she was finding it hard to return to her job working with kids following the loss of her child, Kym revealed going back to work on ‘Corrie’ helped her find some "normality" in her life.
She said: "It is a jigsaw puzzle … going back to work helped me, that feeling of getting back to normality. It’s like life is going on around you and you’re just stuck in this hole and you can’t get out."
Kym also revealed her "gut instinct" was to go ahead with the plotline, as even though she knew it would be emotionally tough for her it would help lots of bereaved parents watching at home.
She said: "My gut instinct was to do it, the reason is since losing Archie I’ve spoken to so many other women and men in similar situations and worked with organisations … I just thought what better way to raise awareness than to do this."
‘Coronation Street’ next airs on ITV at 7:30pm and 08:30pm on ITV.
Kym Marsh: I still celebrate Archie’s life
