Coronation Street’s Jane Hazlegrove has shared that she “ran out of money” before she joined the ITV soap. In 2019, the actress appeared on our screens as the lovable Bernie Winter, the mum of Gemma Winter (Dolly-Rose Campbell), Kit Green (Jacob Roberts) and the late Paul Foreman (Peter Ash), who died on the soap after a battle with Motor Neurone Disease last year.
Bernie has had her fair share of the drama on the cobbles since she first arrived six years ago. From Paul’s heartbreaking storyline to the arrival of her long-lost son Kit, to now marrying Dev Alahan, Bernie’s life has been far from peaceful in Weatherfield.
Before she arrived on the soap, Jane starred in Dinnerladies, The Bill and Doctors. She also played Kathleen “Dixie” Dixon in the BBC medical drama Casualty from 2006 to 2016.
In a recent interview with My Weekly magazine, Jane explained she only joined Coronation Street in 2019 because she needed money to buy a new bathroom.
She said: “I only came into Coronation Street for 10 episodes to get a new bathroom. I’d run out of money, and when they said, ‘Will you come and do Corrie for a bit,’ I thought, ‘Yes! That will pay for a nice white suite!'”
Her initial brief stint in Weatherfield has turned into six years, and she feels very lucky to have had a long stay on the ITV soap. Jane, whose alter ego is getting married to businessman Dev Alahan (Jimmi Harkishin) added: “I’ve been here for six years now, and I’ve just signed for another year.” She added: “It’s a lovely place to work. I feel very blessed.”
Away from the cobbles, Jane married actress Isobel Middleton in 2015 but the couple decided to keep their wedding a secret. The two soap actors met in 1995, formed a civil partnership in 2010, and got married in 2015.
However, Jane, 57, initially did not want to get married because she did not want to say “I do” just because the then-UK Conservative Prime Minister David Cameron, 58, and his government legalised same-sex marriage in 2014.
Jane explained to the Daily Mirror newspaper: “The wedding was five years later at a Bristol register office. I didn’t want to do it originally.
“I didn’t want to do it just because the government now said we could. I’ve never been part of a gang. I like to think of myself as someone who doesn’t conform.
“So, we didn’t tell anybody, we just went and did it ourselves. All we had to do was take a gas bill and upgrade! Really romantic! We then invited six friends around for a curry.”
Jane considers her marriage to Isobel – who played Detective Inspector Roberts in Emmerdale – to be her “greatest achievement”. She said: “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 my career.
“I just can’t believe that I’m allowed to love this woman and live the life I live without being persecuted and hounded. Yes, you still meet homophobia every day, but I just smile at the homophobes and try to educate them and lead from the front.”