The Vanessa Woodfield actress has also shared her experience on her IVF journey
Emmerdale actress Michelle Hardwick has played the role of Vanessa Woodfield since her debut in 2012 when she was hired by Rhona Goskirk, an old friend from university, to work as a locum.
Since joining the Dales, Vanessa has had her fair share of drama – from being tied up and held hostage by murderer Pierce Harris, an on-again-off-again relationship with Charity Dingle and her bowel cancer diagnosis.
Vanessa disappeared briefly back in 2020 after she caught Charity kissing a man who was later identified as Mackenzie Boyd, the now husband of Charity. In real life, however, Michelle was on maternity leave as she welcomed her first child.
In recent episodes, Vanessa has been grieving the loss of her girlfriend Suzy Merton who tragically died in the Valentine’s limo crash. Her grief has turned to anger after learning that Suzy kissed Mary Goskirk as she wanted to end things with Vanessa before her death.
Michelle has since given birth to her second child in 2022. Before giving birth to her daughter, Michelle appeared on Loose Women and revealed: “We didn’t know with Teddy, we thought the whole way through that Teddy was a little girl. We never had the scan or anything. And then I had imagined us with two boys but it’s a little girl.”
The actress is currently married to Kate Brookes who is the current producer of rival soap Coronation Street. Before that, Kate was the producer on the set of Emmerdale which is where her and Michelle were first introduced.
They started dating shortly after Michelle split from her first wife in 2017. Michelle dated her first wife for three years before they tied the knot in 2015. They split a year later on good terms, and the star admitted she hadn’t told her castmates until they spotted she no longer had her wedding ring on.
She previously shared: “It was one of those unfortunate things where we did drift apart. We had the big fairytale wedding and I still love that day, it was brilliant. It’s just really sad and one of those things that happen, I don’t know how else to explain it. I grew out of love and she became more like my best friend.”
In September 2019, Michelle and Kate got married at a stunning venue in Memphis. Michelle donned a white jumpsuit whereas Kate stood proudly by her side in a vintage-style maxi dress, as they both carried matching bouquets.
Michelle was the one who popped the question in the December of the previous year, at the time she tweeted: “So after months of planning, I popped the question!!! She said yes!!! #loveislove #noordinaryproposal @katebrooks”. This was only a couple months after they announced their relationship on social media.
The couple revealed their relationship to followers on National Coming Out Day with Michelle captioning a cute picture of them with a rainbow emoji and the words: “It will all work out in the end.”
Michelle and Kate shared their IVF journey after they welcomed their first son, Teddy. To raise awareness for National Fertility Week, Michelle offered a glimpse into her experience. She wrote: “We were extremely lucky that it worked first time, as we know the journey can be a lot harder for some. So whatever stage you are at with your fertility treatment, try and stay strong and stay positive. Teddy, you made it all worthwhile”.
The donor is the same one they used for Teddy, so the siblings will be biologically related. “We didn’t really know much about it,” Michelle admitted about the process. “It was as simple as: ‘what characteristics, what colour hair’ and we were like ‘we don’t really know, as long as they’re kind and a lovely person’, but they sent through two donor CVs.”
Prior to landing the role of Vanessa in Emmerdale, Michelle had notable roles in Heartbeat and Coronation Street. In the ITV soap, the Leeds-born star played two different role – Sheila Dixon in 1997 and Naomi Russell in 1998.
One of her biggest starring roles, however, was as Lizzie Hopkirk in The Royal – a spin-off from Heartbeat. She also had a minor role in Hollyoaks.
