Jane Hazlegrove’s Coronation Street character Bernie Winter is getting ready to tie the knot with Dev Alahan (Jimmi Harkishin) in the ITV soap, but in real life, she is soon set to celebrate her 10th wedding anniversary.
The former Casualty star fell in love with fellow actress Isobel Middleton 30 years ago, and the pair wed once same sex marriage was legalised in the UK.
Soap fans will recognise Isobel as Emmerdale’s DI Roberts, the detective who led the investigation into the murder of Anthony Fox earlier this year.
She has also starred in Mr Bates vs the Post Office, and even had her own role on the cobbles.
Though a lot of things have changed since the couple first met, Jane sadly revealed that she and Isobel still face daily homophobia – but she has the perfect way of dealing with it.
‘You still meet homophobia every day, but I just smile at the homophobes and try to educate them and lead from the front,’ she told The Mirror.
Reflecting on her marriage, Jane gushed about her wedding day, saying: ‘I love a wedding, but I never thought that I’d actually get to have my own big party, full of all the people that I love and lots of laughter.
‘It was a beautiful thing and a bit of a shock. I still can’t believe it and I’m so proud that we’ve done it and I’m so proud of my love for Isobel. It’s my greatest achievement, regardless of the career.’
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She continued: ‘I just can’t believe that I’m allowed to love this woman and live the life that I live without being persecuted and hounded.’
Jane previously opened up about her experiences at Pride for Metro, writing about how she went from being worried about bumping into someone she knew at her first Pride event, to standing proudly atop the Coronation Street float.
‘Somewhere among [the crowd] may have been a shy young woman uncertain about her sexuality, hoping that no-one she knew saw her there, but I like to think that times have changed, and mostly for the better,’ Jane wrote.
‘That young woman today can see role models in almost all areas of life, including LGBTQ+ actors appearing in our best loved soaps, who are able to work and be celebrated for who they are.
