Coronation Street’s Vanessa Hehir returns to her ‘normal job’ after quitting soap amid controversial surrogacy storyline
CORONATION Street star Vanessa Hehir has gone back to her job as a professional photographer just days after revealing she has quit the soap.
The 41-year-old, who also starred in Waterloo Road, played church goer Esther Hargrave on the Cobbles since September.
On Saturday she confirmed that she had left the role, and today gave her Instagram followers an insight into her normal day job when she revealed she is currently focusing on the photography portrait company she runs.
Sharing a snap of her holding her camera, Vanessa admitted it was good to be back behind the camera for a change.
Captioning the photo, the actress wrote: “Lovely to be back behind the camera! Busy week shooting.”
Vanessa then added the link to the account for her photography company named Vanessa Valentine Photography.
Vanessa’s bio describes her as ‘London’s leading headshot photographer’.
It also mentions that her work has been featured in publications including Variety and Vogue Bambini.
Vanessa last week paid tribute to Corrie and her co-stars as she revealed she had bowed out after a five month stint.
Vanessa’s character was at the heart of the recent controversial baby surrogacy storyline involving teen Summer Spellman, which concluded on screen in dramatic scenes aired last week.
The actress is probably best known for playing Rosie Cartwright on ITV’s Heartbeat from 2001 – 2007.
Vanessa, who appeared in 72 episodes of Heartbeat, played Sue Lowsley on BBC school drama Waterloo Road.
She has also appeared in a recurring role on Emmerdale between 2010 – 2011 and Welsh comedy series Stella and Hollyoaks.
And she has a connection to Corrie – as her real life husband Leon Ockenden appeared on the soap back in 2016 as Michelle Connor’s creepy boyfriend turned stalker Will Chatterton.
The pair both starred on Waterloo Road together and their characters ended up having an illicit affair.
Speaking in the past about working with him on sex scenes, Vanessa said: “I was sick to the pit of my stomach when we had intimate scenes together.
“It just somehow feels different with my actual husband, even a bit weirder than with an actor you don’t know.
“On the one hand, I was thinking, ‘I hope my child never sees this’, but on the other hand it was kind of fun. And I never thought we’d have the opportunity to work together on a storyline like that. It’s a dream come true.”