Kerry Wyatt made a grand return to Emmerdale last year and despite a chequered love life in the village, the character appears to have found love with shady businessman Al Chapman. The mother of Amy Wyatt, Kerry first appeared in the Dales in 2012.
Out in Hotton, she witnessed her boyfriend, Chris Fletcher, kissing another girl that just so happened to be her daughter. Having already smacked her, Kerry later showed up in the village to try and make amends and soon ends up making the place her home too.
More recently, after actress Laura Norton took a break from the soap to have her son, Kerry has been partnered up with Al. However, their relationship almost hit a stumbling block last month when she thought he was having an affair with his new business partner, Belle Dingle.
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After scuppering their plans to have a social media influencer on board, Belle ended up playing peacemaker between Kerry and Al's ex Priya Sharma after it was revealed the former engaged couple shared a kiss. After airing their differences, Kerry took Al back and things have gone back to being quiet between the pair.
But Laura's love life couldn't be more different from that of her character. The actress, 38, who plays Kerry in the ITV soap, is currently loved up with Mark Jordon, 57, who joined the soap as Daz Spencer in 2014. He joined the soap two years after Laura for a brief spell before returning in 2017.
However, Daz was written out of Emmerdale in January 2019 following a difficult PTSD storyline. In the meantime, Laura and Mark had struck up a firm friendship on the show before their chemistry turned into romance in 2015, 18 months after Mark first left the soap.
Laura has previously told OK! Magazine: "We hadn’t seen each other since he’d left but we were friends. Then we just started hanging out and before we knew it we were falling for each other. We didn’t want to spoil our friendship. It was a slow burner."
Repeating their love story, the actress has recently told Inside Soap: "[The Emmerdale set] was where we first met, but no it wasn't love at first sight!" she said. "We didn't have a chance to get to know each other properly at first as Mark was only there for two weeks. Our paths crossed later, we became close friends, then the unexpected happened and now we have a baby – it's bizarre when I think about it!"
After months of questioning whether they should be more than friends, they eventually gave in to their feelings. Laura and Mark then got engaged in 2018, after Mark booked a holiday to Spain for Laura’s birthday. However, they didn’t announce the news until seven months later.
Mark tweeted at the time: "Well 2018 had some of the highest highs and the lowest lows. Really got to feel the love of true friends. Feel blessed by the support of my children and elated to have heard the word 'yes' from the most beautiful woman in the world."
Then in early 2021 the pair welcomed son Jesse with Laura making the happy announcement on Instagram alongside sweet snaps of the baby. "So, on Friday Jan 29th at 1.30am we managed to bring this little champ into the world. It was the most incredible, surreal experience I have ever had and probably ever will and my tiny mind is blown."
The proud parents continue to share photos of their baby boy on social media. Last month Mark paid tribute to his other half on Mother's Day. He shared a photo of mother and son smiling at each other, writing: " Happy Mother’s Day to the most beautiful woman @laura_norts . Thank you for bringing this hero into our life’s #jessejordon."
More recently, Laura has opened up about her own health battle. In an interview with New Magazine, she bravely opened up about how the synthetic hormones she was taking to tackle her "horrendous periods" kickstarted her hair loss. The Emmerdale star said she first noticed her hair falling out when she was just 16.
But after joining the cast of the ITV soap the mother-of-one hit an all time low when her hair began "falling out in clumps" - leaving her at "crisis point". It is then she found a trichologist and has since called the one she found her "guardian angel in hair form" as after just six months of treatment her dark locks began to grow back.
Laura was prescribed a 'hair-friendly' version of the pill in replacement of the ones she had previously been on that had affected her hair. Laura also said she was "lucky" that her hair grew thicker during the nine months she carried her baby boy.
Over the years Laura had also unveiled a massive weight loss transformation, dropping three stone after admitting she used to drink a shocking four litres of Coca Cola per day. Speaking to The Mirror, she told of her addiction to sugar and how she knew it had "gone too far"
She said: “I had been addicted since I was a teenager. At its worst, I used to drink two 2-litre bottles of Coke a day. But, when you are addicted, you don’t realise how much you are getting through. In the end, it was my dad who pointed it out. It was so much caffeine, so much sugar, so bad for your teeth. I know now how much sugar is in it. One day I was at home in my pyjamas and I wanted my dad to go to the off-licence to get me some Coke. I think he just thought it had gone too far."
She also told Lorraine in 2019 how she had lost weight: “I just cut all the rubbish out and exercised," she said. "Do you know, in the eight years that I have been on Emmerdale, I have never once had a pudding. I can’t. It’s just a slippery slope."
