~ Latest News ~

Interview: Celebs On Sunday (Sunday Mirror - 9th May 2010)

After a tough 2009 things are looking up for Corrie's Kym Marsh, 33, so Celebs On Sunday swept her and daughter Emily, 12, off to Cyprus to celebrate. She talks exclusively about being a survivor...

When Kym Marsh opens her hotel room door to us, we’re dazzled by two things – her megawatt smile and a sparkler on her engagement finger almost the size of a gobstopper. In the flesh, she’s more petite than you’d expect (except for her newly acquired 32Ds) and even though she’s only wearing Juicy tracksuit bottoms and a vest top, she flaunts one of those naturally slim but curvy figures you can’t help envying.

Despite the smiles, Kym, 33, has had a hell of a year following the heart-breaking death of her son, Archie, seconds after being born 14 weeks prematurely and the subsequent split from her now fiancée Jamie Lomas, 29. Happily this year looks like it’s going to be a very different story, with their wedding plans well under way. After a reconciliation, Jamie popped the question on Christmas Day (unfortunately he’s been unable to join us in Cyprus due to rehearsals for his new show, A Chorus Line), add to that her well-received appearance on Piers Morgan’s Life Stories, only just missing out on the final of Popstar To Operastar and her recent award for Celeb Mum Of The Year and you can see the soap star finally has something to smile about…

Inviting us in, Kym introduces us to her parents, Pauline and Dave (two of the nicest people we’ve ever met), her son, also called David, 15 (who has just emerged from what Kym calls ‘his cave’ and despite a bad case of sunburn is one of the politest teenage boys in existence) and her daughter Emily, 12.

Only a few seconds after meeting Emily it becomes obvious we’ve got a full-on mini-me situation. Not only has she got the same big smile as Kym, but she’s also inherited her mum’s love of the limelight. Far from being nervous in front of the camera, she quickly has us in stitches with her silly faces and general clowning around, and Kym reveals that, when Emily grows up, she wants to be a singer, just like her mum.

‘She’s got a lovely voice and she never stops singing,’ Kym says proudly. ‘ Jamie goes mad because she always wakes him up at half six by singing Beyoncé as she gets ready for school. (On cue, Emily’s singing drifts in from the balcony and yes, she’s good.) She goes to a drama group on a Saturday morning. They’ve said she’s ready to start going to auditions, so she’s very excited.’ Sounds like a star in the making.

Sitting in the hotel suite at Le Meridien Limassol with Kym, Pauline, Dave, David and Emily, you can tell this is a close-knit family who enjoy spending time together. And listening to the banter as they all talk over each other and Emily and David fight over who’s going to put aftersun on his sunburn, we can’t help thinking that a Marsh family holiday would be a lot of fun. It certainly sounds like they’ve had a lot of practice.

‘The south coast of Spain was our first caravan holiday with Kym,’ says dad Dave. ‘It was the day of Charles and Diana’s wedding. She was five. We loaded her and her brother and sister into the car and drove for three days to get to the campsite, and we stayed there for a month.’

A three-day car journey with small children, surely that was a nightmare? ‘It was all part of the adventure,’ laughs Kym, ‘we loved that, when you’re a kid it’s so much fun. I remember that holiday, there was a fella called Pedro who had a donkey I loved (Pauline interrupts to point out the donkey was called Pedro), my parents bought me a dress covered in tassels and my hair went blonde in the sun.’

So did her early family caravanning trips inspire Kym to do the same thing with Emily and David? ‘We didn’t go on holiday when they were small, we couldn’t afford it,’ she shrugs. ‘The first time I took them away was when I was in Hear’Say. The other members had been to places like Brazil, but I took the kids to Euro Disney. I loved it, it was so nice to finally be able to take them away. Emily was really small and in awe of meeting all the Disney characters and David was old enough to love going on the rides.’

More recently, they’ve been enjoying going on holiday with the new additions to their family. ‘Last time we were in Cyprus it was with Jamie and his little boy Billy,’ says Kym. ‘Billy’s four and he spends three days a week with us. The kids love him, he’s a little brother to them, and they can’t go anywhere without him following. David’s really good with him, Billy loves playing Mario Kart so David’ll spend hours on the Wii with him. Even when he’s crashed he’ll go, “Yeah, you won!’’ We’ve been on so many lovely holidays in the last few years as a family and the kids always appreciate it because they remember when we couldn’t afford to go away. It was hard when I was a single mum.’

That’s what we love about Kym, she might be somewhat of a national treasure now, but she’s experienced serious highs and lows on her way to the top. Not that she’s complaining. ‘You’ve got to take the rough with the smooth in life, I’m just very grateful to be where I am now.’ She’s even philosophical about last year’s tragedy.

Despite clearly dreading the topic coming up, she takes a deep breath and says, ‘What happened was really sad and at the time I couldn’t see an end to it, but time’s a great healer. It’s something I’ll never really get over, but you learn to live with it. And I’ve got two other children who need me. We all go through bad times and there’s only ever two options – you can sink or swim and I decided to swim.’

She really does deserve a happy ending and it looks like she’s going to get one. You only have to watch her face light up whenever Jamie’s mentioned, and the way she keeps dropping his name into conversation, to know she’s seriously in love and she can’t stop a little bit of her excitement from bubbling over. ‘We’re just really happy and excited,’ she smiles, ‘and both really, really looking forward to the wedding.’

Kym’s mum Pauline tells us about their worst family holiday. ‘We booked a caravan when the kids were small, we thought it was at a campsite near a beach but it was just one caravan in the corner of a field. It was full of mould, and when we opened the door, chickens came out!’

‘David is the opposite of his sister,’ says Kym. ‘He disappears whenever anyone tries to take his picture (hence the distinct lack of photos of him). He’s got a great sense of humour and we do have a laugh together, but he’s very shy, he doesn’t like big crowds. He used to be shy because he was quite a big lad, then one of his friends – who was the same size as him – suddenly developed a six pack and I think that triggered something in him. He cut out all junk food and was really careful about what he ate and the weight absolutely fell off him. Then he shot up in height and ended up the shape he is now. (Seeing David towering over his 5ft 4in mum, we can see what she means, he’s got to be nearly 6ft). David and Jamie get on brilliantly, we all get on, but they’re really good mates. David will go and play football with Jamie and his friends and he inherits any of Jamie’s clothes he doesn’t want any more – which works out well for him because Jamie’s got some lovely stuff. The only thing David can’t have is Jamie’s shoes as his feet are too big, David’s a size 11!’

Piers Morgan Life Stories: Kym Marsh

Tune in to ITV1 on Saturday 13th March at 9pm

After Simon Cowell kicked off the brand new series of Life Stories, the second episode comes rolling in with arguably the most famous barmaid North of the Queen Vic!

revealing, funny and deeply touching interview, former pop star and soap-sensation Kym Marsh will be telling Piers about her family life, her marriage to Jack Ryder and her engagement to Jamie Lomas. She talks about the baby son the couple lost last year and her plans for the future.

 Talking about her children, Kym says:  ”I will fight tooth and nail to give my children a better life, I wanted to get out of the situation I was in and I would have done pretty much anything to do that. Their lives now are so much different, there have been times when me and my sister have gone halves on a bag of nappies because we couldn’t afford one on our own and in doing what I do and going the route I’ve gone I am able to give them the life that I wanted to give them.”

Michael Winners Dining Stars

Kym will also be appearing on the final show of Micheal Winners Dining Stars, which is on Friday 19th March on ITV1

Michael Winner has had a lifetime of dining in the finest establishments in the world but now Britain’s harshest restaurant critic is turning his attention to ordinary home cooks as he joins them and their guests at a dinner party they’ll never forget.

In this brand new four-part series for ITV1, six contestants will each prepare a three-course meal for Michael Winner with the hope of being granted one of his prestigious Dining Star Awards and the chance to step into Michael’s own kitchen to cook for him and a celebrity gathering, including Sir Roger Moore, Kym Marsh, Christine Bleakley, Andrew Neil and Giorgio Locatelli.

"You've heard of the play The Iceman Cometh, this is The Axeman cometh.”

He adds: “I’m going around to places I wouldn’t normally touch with a proverbial barge pole, but I may find something incredible there. It’s absolutely possible for a home cook to produce an incredible, unbeatable dining experience. They do it with love, they do it with care. If they’re good they can beat the restaurants hands down.”

But Michael will not be lowering his standards for the home cooks, he will be grading everything - the food, the guests and the ambiance - exactly as he would in a restaurant.

He’ll be taking notes and recording his findings as the dinner party takes place, then the contestants will be called down to London for Michael to reveal his verdict.

Older News >>>>>