Fans have admitted they ‘didn’t realise’ that Kate Ford had a musical past long before she stepped foot onto the famous cobbles as Tracy Barlow
Coronation Street fans have admitted they ‘didn’t realise’ that Kate Ford had a musical past long before she stepped foot onto the famous cobbles as Tracy Barlow.
The character of Tracy was born on-screen in an episode in January 1977. She is the daughter of Ray Langton and Deirdre Barlow. However, she had little to do with her father and was later adopted by Deirdre’s new husband Ken Barlow.
It wasn’t until 2002 that Kate picked up the role, following in the footsteps of Christabel Finch (1977-1983), Holly Chamarette (1985-1988) and Dawn Acton (1988-1999).
Kate was in the role from 2002 to 2007 before she reprised the role for a brief stint from late May to early June 2010, returning full-time from December 2010. In April 2024, Kate took a break from the show and returned in August 2024.
But in the 23 years on-and-off that Kate has been in the role, Tracy has faced a whole host of storylines from killing her ex Charlie Stubbs in cold blood to drugging Roy Cropper and faking they had slept together before finding out she was pregnant.
While Kate was 26 when she landed the iconic role, the actress actually had a taste of the spotlight at the age of 19 when she starred in the music video for The Beatles’ song Free as a Bird in 1995, where she can be seen during a 1960s street scene.
She then picked up small parts in shows including one-episode stints on EastEnders and Doctors, before becoming the fourth actress to play Tracy.
But it was her musical past that recently left some Corrie fans surprised, as one said on social media: “Tracy is a legend! I didn’t realise until about 3 years ago that she’s in one of the Beatles songs “Free as a Bird” quality song.”
Away from the ITV soap, Kate has had to endure her own trials and tribulations, including when her marriage to TV producer Jon Connerty broke down. The couple, who share one son together, Otis, married in 2007 before divorcing in 2015.
In an interview with The Sun, the mum-of-one, who previously dated BAFTA-nominated actor Bart Ruspoli, who had a brief stint on EastEnders, for a short while in 2000, said that the separation was “incredibly painful”, but acting helped her to move on. “When Jon and I first parted it was quite hard to put my personal life aside,” she explained.
“We really tried hard to make it work. But it came to the point when we knew we had to get a divorce. Things had changed and it wasn’t what it was. But it was incredibly painful. For a while after we split, I found it hard to get out of bed.
“I wasn’t at work at the time, and I’d drop Otis off at school and go back to bed until I picked him up. But then it became therapeutic to concentrate on my job. People call it ‘Doctor Theatre’ – when you’re acting, you can’t worry about things.”
Meanwhile, the soap star also battles an illness behind the scenes. Kate suffers from endometriosis – an often painful disorder in which tissue similar to the tissue that normally lines the inside of the uterus grows outside the uterus.
She opened up to her Instagram followers last year, sharing a selfie in her ITV filming jacket. Writing to her thousands of followers, Kate said: “Filming #itvcorrie this was a few weeks ago at a time that I was struggling with my #endrometriosis.
She added: “Luckily got lots of support x just sending a hug out to all those struggling with similar,” followed by a red love heart. Kate had previously mentioned her endometriosis during the first coronavirus lockdown in 2020, when she tweeted: “As someone with grade four endometriosis, I realise how much I rely on my massage therapy to help with this.
“Due to COVID I’ve not been able to visit my therapist for three months. My body is sore, I’ll never take this therapy for granted again xx.”
