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EX-CORRIE STAR SURANNE JONES TELLS US WHY SHE’S CONTEMPLATING PLASTIC SURGERY

Interview by Louise Gannon

Photography by Simon Fraser

For a woman who’s always been plagued by insecurities about her figure, Suranne Jones looks pretty darned amazing.

Statuesque, with a peachy complexion and a phenomenal cleavage, she has a body most women would kill for.

So it comes as a shock to hear her admit she’s contemplating plastic surgery.

“I’ve never felt comfortable about having such an enormous chest,” says Suranne, who has a 32FF bust.

“I don’t wear anything that shows them off, and I have real difficulty buying clothes.

"I’m a size 10/12 on the bottom and up to a size 16 on top, so if I want a bikini I often have to buy the same one in two different sizes to get one that fits.”

Suranne has trouble understanding the vogue for big boobs, complaining of permanent strap marks caused by breasts so heavy, they sometimes hurt.

“I saw a Harley Street cosmetic surgeon some years back to discuss having a reduction,” she explains.

“I thought about it long and hard and although I decided against it then, I haven’t dismissed the idea.”

It’s fitting, then, that 29-year-old Suranne, who found fame as brassy Karen McDonald in Coronation Street, is
about to star as a doctor in ITV1’s new medical drama series Harley Street.

She explains: “My character is well groomed, intelligent, very together, and about five or six years older than me.

"She’s about as far from Karen as you could get, which is fabulous.”

Suranne’s looking forward to her 30th birthday in January next year, and says life is falling into place for her.

“I have a gorgeous man, Lorenzo Giove, who’s also 29.

"We’ve just bought a house together in Manchester.

"That’s a huge step,” she says.

“I’d love to have kids in a few years and I know Lorenzo’s the man for me.

"I’ve never felt this happy or this settled.”

A self-confessed serial monogamist, Suranne was engaged at 22 to IT consultant Jim Phelan, now 33.

They split up soon after she joined Coronation Street, and within months she was dating her co-star, Jonathan Wrather, 38, who played factory boss Joe Carter.

After they split she was briefly linked to Feeder drummer Mark Richardson, 38, and actor Marc Bannerman, 34.

But it was after leaving Corrie that she fell in love with plumber Lorenzo, who’s half-Italian.

She says: “I’d known him for about 10 years through mutual friends.

"Then at a birthday party, we started talking, and from that moment we’ve been inseparable.

“Just before our third date, I was feeling ill at home.

"He’d been cooking a meal at his place, so he came round to see me with pots of half-cooked sausages and mashed potato.

“He finished cooking it at mine, and I suppose we fell in
love over sausages and mash.

“That was the moment I knew he was really special.

"I’d met this man who wanted to take care of me, and that was amazing.”

Suranne says Lorenzo has brought her the security she’s craved all her life.

As a child she was badly bullied at school, and even her success as an actress has done little to stoke her low self-esteem.

“I always had a hang-up about the way I looked,” she says.

“I stood out in everything I did. At school I was tall (she’s 5ft 7in), and as an actress I was always so much bigger than everyone else.

“It was fantastic to get a role like Karen McDonald where I could play up my larger-than-life side.”

Eventually it was time for Suranne to move on from Corrie – but that involved a surprising amount of trauma and upheaval.

“I had a really difficult time. It was an emotional breakdown for me,” she reflects.

“My relationship with Jonathan was coming to an end and I’d spent years in a constant whirl of scripts, filming, interviews, cars picking me up and dropping me off, and then, overnight, all that went.”

Nearly four years on, Suranne is happier and more secure with herself, not least because of her relationship
with Lorenzo.

“We make each other laugh and we care about each other,” she says.

“I’m never going to be super-skinny, but he loves me exactly as I am.

"I have a lot more confidence now, and I think a lot of that is to do with being happy with him and being older and wiser.”

She says she’s glad to be leaving her 20s behind, and excited about hitting 30.

“Hopefully it will be about marriage, kids and great acting opportunities,” she says.

“I’m even happier about the way I look – I feel I’ve finally grown into my face and my body.”

When it comes to good health, Suranne reveals that her secret weapon is detoxing – and a spot of colonic irrigation.

“I’ve never had Botox and I’m not sure I will,” she says.

“If I want to look my best, I just detox.

"The best one I did was in Thailand, where you ate a specific diet and had several colonics every day for over a week.

“Then I did a detox where you had to carry out your own colonics.

"It’s amazing for the skin and it makes your eyes clear and bright.

"I swear by them!

Suranne stars in Harley Street, Thursdays, 9pm, ITV1.

 

THE FABULOUS 5

1. For what event would you win an Olympic Gold medal?
Putting the most amount of gravy on my food.

2. If you could be invisible for a day, what would you do?
Go back into an audition room to hear what they said about me after I’d left.

3. What job would you be doing if you weren’t famous?
I’d be a teacher. I do drama classes in Belfast every
year for underprivileged kids and I love it.

4. If you could go back in time, what words of wisdom would you tell yourself at 13?
Don’t worry, everything will fall into place.

5. How do you rate yourself as a celebrity – A, B or C-list?
That depends on the invitation. For a P. Diddy party, I’d be D-list, for the Soap Awards I’d be A-list

 

Photography: ITV, Wenn, Rex, Retna, Eamon and James Clarke Hair: Melissa Brown at Mandy Coakley Styling: Lynne McKenna

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