Kym on life:

What did you want to be when you were little? I wanted to be a pop star.

What was your favourite toy as a child? Blimey! I couldn’t possibly just choose one! There were too many! I think my favourites were the ones where you used your imagination and actually did things. There was one called Girls world that was great and the A La Carte kitchen was brilliant as well, you could make pretend meals with plastic utensils.

Who do you most admire in the world? My parents.

Which famous person would you most like to meet? Sir. Anthony Hopkins.

Do you prefer male or female company? Male, I've always been one of the lads.

What would be your ideal night out? Having a bit of a party, roll home late and get a kebab!

What would be your ideal night in? A good DVD, good company and good food.

Who would you spend it with? My family

Which household appliance gets the better of you? The video/DVD player.

Are you tidy or messy? A bit of both.

Are you a sound sleeper? No.

Do you prefer sun or snow? I love it when it’s hot and sunny, you can’t help but be in a good mood and you end up dancing a lot. When it’s cold and snowy it’s a good excuse to get snuggly with loved ones, and you can wear 2 pairs of socks! I try to make snow men with the kids but I’m no good at it, I can never get the coal eyes to stick on!

What's the worst lyrics you've ever heard? 'Monday, Monday, so good to me' because Monday's never good to me!

What's the one place in the world you'd love to see? Australia.

What's the most you've spent on an item of clothing? £500 on a coat

Do you owned patterned socks? Yes, I've got some Christmas socks with Christmas trees on.

Which perfume do you wear? Angel by Thierry Mugler and Tommy Girl.

Who could you have in a showbiz fight? Eminem, haha!

Have you ever broken the law? Yes. I was 17, had a provisional license and drove my car by myself and got caught. I got six points and a £300 fine. Not good.

If you would pass a new law, what would it be? That nobody can say anything bad about anybody unless they really know them.

What's your idea of happiness? Just being with my kids and giving them the best so they don't ever have to struggle.

What qualities do you most value in a friend? Honestly, loyalty and a good listener.

What’s your greatest fear? I'm going on about my kids again, but my greatest fear is that they would be affected by all of this. If that happened I'd stop it straight away.

How would you like to die? Quickly and painlessly! In my sleep.

If you could come back from the dead what would you be? A dog, then I could just eat and sleep all day.

What would you change about yourself? I'd like to be thinner and I don’t like my nose.

You suffered from bulimia when you were younger. Did you seek counseling for it? No, thankfully it didn't get that far for me. I'm very close to my mum and dad and I was very aware of how it would make them feel, so I was able to stop myself from it getting any worse, thankfully.

And you've suffered from panic attacks. Yes, I still get those every now and again. I hyperventilate and I start to feel like I can't breathe. My throat closes up and I get sweaty palms and I start feeling light-headed, dry-mouthed. They are really scary. Eventually I wouldn't go anywhere because everywhere I went I thought I was bound to have one. I went to see someone and I was diagnosed with anxiety attacks. I did some life coaching and now it doesn't worry me anymore.

Do you believe in a god? I’m not deeply religious but I reckon there must be something that looks after someone.

What about fate, do you believe in that? I believe passionately in fate, so many lucky things have happened to me, like they’re meant to be. I believe if you fall pregnant it was meant to be, what must happen happens.

Kym on her school days:

Who was your favourite teacher? There were millions of fab teachers who got me to where I am today.

Did you fancy any of your teachers? I had a crush on a history teacher at Birchill High.

Were you cool at school? No! I always wanted to be tough!

What sport were you best at? Football, I was the striker in the 5 a side footie team!

What’s the naughtiest thing you did? I used to fight a lot.

Did you get good reports? It was always ‘could do better’.

What was your best subject at school? Cookery, Drama and obviously Music.

What was your worst subject? I LOATHED maths, I used to stay in the toilet and skip lessons.

Were you in any school clubs? I was in the school choir and sang the lead every year.

Were you always singing and dancing at school? I always was. I used to get called a freak because I never went to school discos because I always wanted to go to auditions.

Kym on the Popstars auditions:

What was your first Popstars audition like? I didn't really know what it was about. I saw all the people and the cameras but it wasn't until the second show that I realised what it was all about. There were some dodgy singers there and I thought, ‘Why have they come?’ There were some who lost it because of nerves but there were some who were tone deaf and thought they'd get in cos they looked good. When I got to the London auditions, I didn't think I stood a chance. There were people every day who were at least as talented as me.

How did you feel when you heard you had won? It didn’t sink in at all. I didn’t have a clue what was going on. I thought I would have cried but there were no tears left.

What was the most emotional moment? Every time I had to leave my two kids. Part of the deal was that you had to move into the house together for three months so my mum had them. I rang them every morning and night.

Was Popstars judge Nasty Nigel really that nasty? Noooooo! He wasn’t really nasty; I mean he was just a pussy cat really. He was a bit of a drama queen really wasn’t he? He just says what everyone else thinks. If he was boring and went, 'That was very good. See you soon' it wouldn't be interesting TV.

So did you flirt with Nigel to get picked? Do you really think id flirt with nasty Nigel after he called me a fat cow? I don’t think so!

Was there anyone else that you think should have made it? Warren and Raymond had two of the best voices I’ve ever heard and I’m sure they will get something.

When you went into the auditions surely you must have known it was all going to be about the money and not about the music? At that point in time I was very naive because although I'd been singing a long time I hadn't been so seriously involved in the music industry. I think we were a little experiment and we weren't given as much of a free reign as we would like to have been given. We had to stay very much pop because that was our audience and it would have been weird if we hadn't done pop. People weren't really concentrating on the music as much.

Have you watched any of the subsequent series of reality shows like X Factor? I used to watch shows like that a lot until I had my baby girl, Polly, and she takes up all my time, so it’s usually bath time! I have seen The Voice. I thought it was a really good concept, but then I saw one episode where a young girl was singing opera, and the coaches were looking at each other and no one turned around.  When they did turn around, they went: ‘If I’d known you looked like that, I would have turned around!’ And that’s the whole point! That kind of got to me and I haven’t watched it since!

Does it all take you back to your time starting out in hear’say? Kind of, but when we were in Popstars, it wasn’t a public vote. Sometimes I think the public vote for the wrong reasons, because they feel sorry for them, or they fancy them. I’d love to be a judge on The X Factor, if Simon Cowell is reading this, thank you very much!

Kym on her time in hear’say:

Did you like your look when you were in hear'say? I think there were certain looks I’d never have had but I loved the purple and blue extensions. Also the hair with the flicks that Donald McInnes created was great.

You were in a very packaged band, has that made you jaded about the music industry? No, I think there are still so many avenues to explore. It’s completely different being you’re my own.

Are you relieved that you left hear'say before their popularity started to wane? No, I had some great times with them. We were really good friends. Sometimes you have to look at your own options in life and decide what to do. I just did what I felt was right.

Looking back what do you think about those crazy 12 months in hear'say? It’s funny, it’s only now I think it was really hard work but really good fun. I’ve been away, taken stock and decided what I want to do, where I want to go. I’ve been glad of that time.

What did you really think of Popstars runners-up Liberty X?
They were really good. People thought there was a lot of rivalry but there wasn't.

Do you wish that you had been with Liberty X rather than hear'say? Never, no. As much as I think they're great, I would never change anything, I owe everything to hear'say. You should never look back and regret anything.

Are you still in touch with any of your former hear’say colleagues? I had lunch with Danny recently. He couldn’t believe the size of my kids because we hadn’t seen each other since I left. Danny was actually looking up at my 17-year-old son David, who’s quite tall. I speak with Myleene quite a bit, but I’m not really in touch with the others, it’s a shame, but hey, it’s just the way it goes.

Do you regret auditioning for hear’say? No, we all have to start somewhere but I don't miss the music industry.

People were quite nasty about you in the group. Yes. Nigel Lythgoe famously said that I was fat on national TV. He did apologise for that, not on camera, but he did apologise. And we were called ‘the ugliest band in pop’ by Elton John. He did come and apologise to us at the Royal Variety Performance. Well, he actually sent someone down who said, 'Elton John would like to apologise for the comment that he made, he'd like you to go up to his room,' and Myleene, I think it was, said, 'No, tell him to come here,' and he did.

When you joined Hear'say were you into pure pop or was it more guitar based? I'm one of these people who can listen to anything. I appreciate all aspects of music. I was always the same as a kid and there was never anyone I was insane over.

Looking in from the outside it seems that most of you didn't get on that well. What was it like actually being in the band? I think there were a lot of misconceptions about us and individuals in the band and it wasn't as bad as everyone thought it was. It's definitely been blown out of all proportion. We obviously had arguments, but then again who doesn't. Sometime when you're working that closely with people you're literally living in each other’s pockets and it does become very testing and we did get on each other’s nerves sometimes. But it certainly was never nowhere near what it has been made out to me, so again that's a case of Chinese whispers.

Kym on her career:

What’s your secret ambition? Just to be really successful and bring up my kids.

How do you cope with all the Media Attention? You have got to stay positive and focused regardless of what people write or say about you.

How do you feel about people who slag people off in the media? It’s pathetic, people judge people before they know them and I don’t take it harshly. If its people in the business then they should know better. It’s usually the people who aren’t that big trying to get a bit more attention and publicity, maybe before releasing a single or something. You usually find the bigger stars are the nicest.’

What's the best advice you've ever been given? Follow your dreams.

When you got pregnant with David, did you think your dreams were over? Not really cos I was 18. I'd been in a relationship with the father for a while and it felt like the right thing to do. I'm glad I did, because I wouldn't be without my kids. If I didn't have my family to support me achieve what I wanted to achieve then I wouldn't have done it. Now I've got a chance to make a better life for all of them. I thought about giving up but I never thought about not having them.

Is failure ever an option? No, no, no. If you have doubt in your mind, you will not succeed. You have got to stay positive and focused, regardless of what people write.

Do you miss that world of pop music and
the charts? No, I don’t. I found it more cut-throat than the world I’m in now, and acting is hard enough. I think the music industry is very difficult, because you’re very much a product, and if people don’t like you, or if you do something that people don’t like, they’ll go: ‘I’m not buying that single now,’ so it’s very fickle. That’s what happened to hear’say. The music scene took me away too much. When you’ve got kids, your values change.

How do you manage parenting three children and doing Coronation Street? I’m very lucky. I’ve got a wonderful support network, obviously my partner Jamie helps a lot, but also my sister looks after Polly while I work, so she’s my nanny, and Polly goes to nursery twice a week as well, because I think nursery is really good for kids, and it gets them to interact with other children.

Do you think any of your children will follow in your showbiz footsteps? My daughter Emily is a mini-me. She loves singing and she acts as well. I think singing is more her thing, and she’s started doing little bits with me now, so when I do a charity event, I’ll often say Emily will come and sing with me, just to give her a bit of experience. I want her to get her GCSEs first, though!

If you weren’t an actress what job would you be doing? A makeup artist, I’ve always fancied that job. I’m quite creative and can do make up pretty well!!

Kym on Coronation Street:

Did you used to watch Coronation Street when you were a child? My earliest memory of the show was when I was about four, which would have been around 1980. My mum would very often wash me by the fire in a big washing-up bowl while we watched Coronation Street, because I wanted to watch it with her!

Back on today’s Coronation Street, what’s in store for your character Michelle Connor? You know as much as I do! I think she’ll be in the factory with Carla for the foreseeable future, I think that’s a dynamic that really works well. Alison King (who plays Carla) and I love working together, and a lot of people have mentioned recently on the social networking sites that they love Carla and Michelle together. When we first started working together, they always had Carla and Michelle warring and bitching, but now the dynamic has changed and we’re close. We are still sisters-in-law really!

Do you feel an affinity with your character Michelle Connor? Yes, we've both experienced being teenage mums, and I'm from a very close family (too). Plus she's a strong old bird.

Do you think Michelle resembles Elsie Tanner in any way? They’re both feisty and they’re both unlucky in love! I think every relationship Michelle’s had, she’s ended up heartbroken. The first fella she had, Ryan’s father, died, then she went with that guy with turned out to be gay and had an affair with Sean. Then she went out with Steve, and he cheated on her with Becky. Then she was with Peter for a bit, and she dumped him. Then Keith Duffy’s character Ciaran left and went back to sea!

What’s been your most pinch-me moment on Corrie? I think my first time in the Rovers, to be honest. You never forget your first time in the Rovers and then being a Rovers barmaid was brilliant. And of course I’ve worked with some iconic actors. It was an absolute honour to work with Betty Driver. I’m so glad to have known her and worked with her, because she is a legend, and she is still missed. I also adore Bill Roache, who took me very much by surprise on camera once!

Tell us more! It was when Peter (Barlow, Ken’s son) was opening the wine bar, and the Rovers was dead, because they’d taken all our business, and Bill (as Ken) said to Michelle: ‘I’m going to go and talk to Peter!’ and I said: ‘See if they’ve got a job for a barmaid while you’re there!’ And he was meant to walk off out of the pub, but on the take, he just grabbed me and kissed me, it was hilarious! The other great moment was having my bottom smacked by Bill Tarmey (Jack Duckworth) and I thought it was someone else!

What do you think of the roles available on TV for British actors? I'm very lucky to have the one I've got. With dramas you tend to see the same face regurgitated, it would be nice to see fresh people coming up. It's hard out there. It's either feast or famine.

Is there a bit of snobbery about being in a soap? These days if you are in a regular job, people think good on you. There are a lot of people who are coming into soap now who wouldn't have before.

Soap actors do always seem to be complaining about how hard they work. To be in a soap you have to be someone who is prepared to be at the grindstone, because it's all hands on deck.

There must be some rivalry among Corrie women? Oh God no, we're all very different. What I love about Michelle is she's not any one thing, she's not the bitch and she's not the wuss, she's a mixture of it all.

Kym on romance:

What was your first kiss like? Everyone fancied this boy Ian Mills and we went out for a while. My first kiss was with him outside my Mum’s house. He put his mouth round mine and it was horrible, it was all slobbery. I went in the house and wiped my face!

Are you romantic? Yes, hopelessly. I like sending little presents and cards. I’m a great believer in telling people how you feel; you should never bottle things up.

What disappoints you most about men? When they're with their friends and they act all hard.

Most snogs in one night Ooh, dunno. About six.