‘I can be confident as an actor – it’s another thing being yourself’
Soap star Laura Norton opens up about revealing her true self in new reality show Drama Queens, discovering that her two children have a disability and struggling with mum guilt
W‘It’s scary… you want to know what the future LOOKS Like for your children’
hen her two young children were diagnosed with a rare genetic disorder, Laura Norton felt like her perfect world was crumbling. The Emmerdale star, 40, is engaged to be married to her former co-star Mark Jordon, with whom she shares son Jesse, three, and daughter Ronnie, who is 17 months.
Just over a year ago, both children were diagnosed with Usher Syndrome, a rare genetic condition that leads to severe sight and hearing loss.
The news has been life-changing for the whole family, but after a period of grief, Laura and Mark have thrown themselves into charity work. They are now patrons and trustees of the charity Cure Usher, raising money to fund research that could help their children, and others like them around the world.
“It’s still quite raw,” Laura tells OK!. “It’s a huge part of our lives. A lot has happened in this last year. It’s very scary because you want to know what the future is going to look like for your children.”
The news was devastating, but Laura and Mark are careful to focus on appreciating what they have, while also working towards a cure in the future.
“There are so many people who are so much worse off,” says Laura stoically. “We’re so lucky to have what we have, but it’s all relative. There’s only one way out of the other side, and that’s to go through. All you want for your child is for everything to be OK. You don’t want them to face challenges, you don’t want them to have any less opportunities than anybody else.”
Despite their difficult diagnosis, both Jesse and Ronnie are happy and thriving in their loving family unit. “They’re doing amazing,” says Laura. “They’re surpassing all their milestones, they both wear hearing aids and they’re thriving in the face of adversity. Everything right now is perfect.”
Laura may not know what the future holds, but she knows it’s going to be busy. As well as looking after her two young children and raising money for Cure Usher, she’s also back at work as Emmerdale’s colourful Kerry Wyatt.
And now, she’s signed up for a new reality show called Drama Queens, alongside two of her Emmerdale pals, Amy Walsh and Roxy Shahidi. They’re not the only soap stars taking part – Hollyoaks’ Jorgie Porter, Jamelia and Rita Simons will also be featuring, as will Coronation Street’s Brooke Vincent, Lucy Fallon and Ellie Leach.
Drama Queens starts with Laura waking up at 5am to get ready for her first day back at work after maternity leave, before the household chaos takes hold.
‘Mark is fantastic – it’s easy going to work knowing the kids are with him’
While she’s out, hands-on dad Mark looks after the kids, in what he calls his “greatest role yet”. Laura reveals, “He says, ‘I love it. It’s the job in which I’m the best in the world. This is my favourite job and there’s nowhere else I’d rather be.’ He’s so chilled. He’s fantastic. It’s really easy driving off to work and knowing the kids are with him.”
Their heartwarming family scenes are captured in Drama Queens, which Laura hopes will also raise awareness for Cure Usher. Laura has embraced filming the reality show, but she struggled at first to open up on camera, after years of playing other characters.
“It’s one thing being really confident as an actor – it’s another thing being yourself. It’s very exposing,” she explains. “I found myself having a bit of a guard up in vulnerable moments, and I had to work out how to take that down. I’m not used to letting people in that way, but also I realise the stories are really important and there’s a reason I wanted to do this.”
When her children were first born, like many mums, Laura struggled not to let her worries overwhelm her.
“It brought out a side of my personality that I didn’t really know existed,” explains Laura. “I can be quite anal. I worry about every little thing. Before, I’d always been quite chilled, but it’s the mum guilt everyone talks about. Everything you do is going to affect them. You are solely responsible for their survival and bringing them joy and happiness. In this Instagram world we live in, you see these expectations of perfection you feel you’re supposed to live up to, and it’s not that easy.”
Happily for Laura, her fiancé Mark, who played Daz Spencer in the soap, is the opposite. “He’s so chilled and I think he really balances me out a lot of the time,” says Laura. “I have to look away sometimes when he’s
‘we’re really good at teaming up and looking after each other in a crisis’
throwing the kids around the room and they’re being aeroplanes and he’s throwing them up in the sky.”
with so many different projects on the go, Laura and Mark’s relationship has sometimes taken a back seat.
“we’ve got two babies to look after, and the charity is like another full-time job, so we have not had any time together,” says Laura. “we haven’t been on a date for ages! it’s very rare that we sit down at the table and have a meal together – there’s just so much chaos going on.”
But Laura has found filming Drama Queens therapeutic. “i’ve learnt things about myself,” she admits. “Mark and i have been talking and it’s felt like therapy. we’ve had conversations we haven’t had the time to have with each other. it was so nice to hear how he’s been feeling, and it feels good for me to be able to say some of these things out loud that i didn’t even know i was thinking.”
they might not have had a date night for a long time, but adversity has only made the couple stronger. “we’re just really good at being a team,” smiles Laura. “we’re good at teaming up and looking after each other. You’ve got to get closer – it’s just what we do in a crisis.”
the couple got engaged in 2018, but babies and Covid have pushed their marriage plans back.
“when we got engaged, life looked very different,” says Laura. “we had all these plans. we thought, we’ll go abroad, we’ll do this and that... and things just kept getting in the way. then Covid came, and then Jesse was born, and obviously life is very, very different now with two babies, but we still really want to do it.”
now they are starting to think about how their wedding will look – and they’ve even considered asking former Emmerdale and Strictly Come Dancing star Kelvin fletcher if they can get hitched on his land. “we’re saying maybe it’s not going to be that big, lavish thing that we once said,” says Laura. “Maybe just something really fun. that’s the only thing that matters – and being in a place where we’re outside of the diagnosis and feeling a bit freer. we’ve got a friend who’s got a farm and a field, so maybe we’ll have our wedding on Kelvin’s farm!”
Drama Queens launches on Wednesday 10 April at 9pm on ITVBE and ITVX. To find more information about Usher Syndrome, visit cureusher.org