Real life of Coronation Street's Jenny Connor actress Sally Ann Matthews - rival role, health battle, surprise wedding to high-flying husband and Corrie legend cousin

Jenny Connor is a firm favourite among fans of Coronation Street, but it's hard to believe that her first appearance on the cobbles was actually more than 30 years ago.

Sally Ann Matthews, who plays the now-Rovers Return landlady, became a young star of Coronation Street when she joined the soap at the age of 16. The Oldham actress was cast in 1986 as Jenny Bradley - the daughter of villain Alan Bradley who was taken in by mother figure Rita Tanner - then Rita Fairclough - while her father worked away.

After five years, Sally quit the show in pursuit of other roles. She returned briefly in 1993, before making a huge comeback in 2015 when Jenny started dating Kevin Webster. However, dealing with the loss of losing her four-year-old son Tom two years earlier when he drowned in a paddling pool, she snatched Kevin's son Jack in order to keep him safe and nearly threw herself off a balcony, resulting in her getting sectioned.

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She then didn't return to the street again in 2016 when Rita took pity on her. She soon started work at Underworld and began a relationship with factory boss Johnny Connor. The pair then wed the following year before buying the Rovers together in 2018. But it wasn't smooth sailing as Johnny's affair with Liz McDonald caused significant marital problems, but they managed to keep their relationship together until Jenny confessed to her infidelity with Ronnie Bailey in 2021.

That same year, just after the pair finally appeared to be giving back into their former feelings for one another, Johnny died in the street's sinkhole disaster, after he tried to save her when she became trapped under the cobbles amid Harvey Gaskell's terrfying