'I WONDER IF I'M MENOPAUSAL WITH MEMORY LOSS - OR IT'S JUST BEING A MUM!'

ACTRESS CLAIRE SWEENEY ON JUGGLING LIFE AS A SINGLE PARENT AS SHE LANDS HER DREAM ROLE ON CORONATION STREET

- JEN PHARO

Claire Sweeney can’t stop smiling – and with good reason. After landing her dream role in Coronation Street, the actress, TV presenter, model, singer and most importantly, mum, is the happiest she’s ever been.

“I feel like I’ve just started on a new adventure,” smiles Claire, who with her honey-blonde locks, golden tan and clear blue eyes is practically glowing when she arrives for our OK! photo shoot. “I feel good. I feel confident, I feel very happy!” she says.

Claire is so happy, she’s even apologising for it. “I don’t mean to go on about it,” she grins, “but I just feel so grateful for things. I’m blessed that at 52 I still love what I do and I’ve got my son and my house. I feel great.”

After she was welcomed into the nation’s homes as Brookside’s Lindsey Corkhill in the 90s, Claire went on to become a TV presenter, a pop star, a radio DJ, an M&S model and a West End star.

“When things happen when you’re younger, you enjoy it and live in the moment but now I’m so grateful for it. It’s the simple things – I love my job.”

That job is playing addict Cassandra Plummer – the long lost mum of Tyrone Dobbs (Alan Halsall) and estranged daughter of Evelyn Plummer (Dame Maureen Lipman) – on TV’s most famous and long-running show, Coronation Street.

“Joining Coronation Street is a big deal,” says Claire. “I’m such a fan… I grew up with Bet Lynch, Elsie Tanner, Hilda and Stan Ogden, Jack and Vera Duckworth… it was part of my childhood and to suddenly be part of it and in that show. I can’t quite believe it.”