Michelle denies ‘marriage woes’ rumour
TV STAR Michelle Keegan has denied rumours of problems in her marriage with Mark Wright, saying they choose to spend time apart because of their careers.
The Our Girl actress has rubbished speculation that she had caused a strain by spending months away from former The Only Way Is Essex star Wright while filming in South Africa and Malaysia.
‘Going away for work is never seen as a good thing, only as a negative, and I don’t understand that,’ she says. ‘Are you seriously supposed to turn down work in case it impacts your marriage?’
Now 33, she was catapulted to fame after landing the role of Tina McIntyre in Coronation Street. During her six-year stint on the soap opera, she regularly posed in revealing outfits for lads’ magazines. ‘I don’t regret doing them,’ she says of this. ‘At the time it was the norm and I don’t think I was taken advantage of, but I look back now and wish they’d been done a bit more tastefully. Now I’m getting older, I’ve learnt I can be in control more.’
It is, she says, exerting that element of control that explains why she and Wright, who she married in 2015, now keep largely silent about their relationship. ‘Around the time of our wedding, I felt we had lost control a little bit – we were in every newspaper and magazine every week,’ she says.
‘I felt like I didn’t want to be talking about my private life any more, especially when a lot of what was reported about us was false.
‘So I just pulled it back. It’s nice to have something just for us, for our families and friends, and these days that’s the way it is.’