Wigan-born singer Kym Marsh shot to fame when she won a place in the Popstars' band Hear'Say. After quitting the group a year later to persue a solo career, she has starred in the West End musical Saturday Night Fever and is now set to join the cast of Coronation Street, as wannabe, Michelle. Kym, 29, and her husband, ex-Eastenders actor Jack Ryder, live in Hertfordshire with Kym's two children, David, 10, and Emily, eight.
Every other weekend we drive the children to Wigan to stay with their dad. We drop them off with him around 8pm and then drive over to Runcorn to my mum and dad's, stopping off at the chippy on the way.
On saturday, after a lie-in, Mum cooks lunch before we visit my sister Tracey and her kids, or my brother David. I love going to all my old haunts at night - my mum and sister often drag me to the bingo in Wigan, while Jack plays computer games with my nephews. Otherwise, we'll go to the local pub and play darts.
We have sunday lunch with my mum and dad in a cafe in Wigan called Conversations. A friend owns it, and I've been going there for years. If there's a football match we'll go to the pub and watch that before picking the children up at 5pm and making a dash for home. We put them straight to bed when we get in and have an early night.
If we're at home, the children choose the meal on friday nights - a takeaway, or a Pizza Express in St. Albans. Occasionally we have their friends over for a sleepover. Jack and I get a lie in on saturday morning and the children get up, get some cereal and watch tv. Jack would sleep all day, but I'm up by 10am at the latest. Lunch is simple, and in the afternoon we might all go to the cinema or tenpin bowling in Watford.
Saturday evenings mean tv for me, but Jack prefers watching dvd's, so he'll go and play playstation games with David, practice his guitar, or surf the internet. Jack makes a Thai stir-fry curry for us all, and the children will stay up until 10pm.
Sunday is a chill-out day. The kids pile into our room in the morning, and we have a cuddle and watch Match Of The Day. Then we go to the carvery at our local pub, and if I've been working all week, I spend the afternoon tidying up. The kids watch tv and me and Jack have a chat and catch up.
By 8.30pm, the kids are in bed and I'll sit with Jack. At the moment he's preparing for a play, so while he learns his lines, I'll read a book. I'm into Patricia Cornwell. Otherwise I do some cross stitch. It's a bit geeky, but I really enjoy it!
Sue Crawford
Kym makes her debut in Coronation Street this monday on ITV1 at 8.30pm (3rd April 2006)