EXCLUSIVE: Kimberly Hart-Simpson explains why returning to Coronation Street was ‘an easy yes’

Stepping back on to the ­Corrie cobbles after a two-year break was a no-brainer for Kimberly Hart-Simpson.

And she loves that her character Nicky Wheatley has grown from a single-mum sex worker trying to make ends meet to an outreach worker helping vulnerable women. Speaking for the first time since returning to the show, Kimberly, who previously appeared in Hollyoaks, says: “She’s a powerful woman. I respect her immensely.

“She’s unapologetically herself and owns her history. To a degree, it’s celebrated. It’s not this negative thing that she was a sex worker. How amazing for a soap to portray a woman from a sex worker to an outreach worker, empowering her rather than someone who should be looked down upon.”

Kimberly says Nicky was brought back without a habit, such as being an alcoholic. “She just had the sole purpose of trying to look after a daughter. I think that really resonates with people in this industry as well.” Landing a part on Coronation Street in 2020 after 10 years of trying was more than a dream come true for Kimberly, now 36.

It also meant she had fulfilled the 2007 dying wish of her Corrie super-fan father Kevin, 63. He had cancer and his last words to her were: “Just do me a favour and get in Corrie, love.” Kimberly, who grew up watching the soap, said: “I was determined to get on because of what it meant to my dad and his request.”

She says: “It’s been a long slog to get on the show, I went for so many parts over the years – like shopper number two. When you’re rejected for something you really want, it lays heavy. So when I was asked to come back it was an easy yes.” Nicky’s back in Weatherfield to help out pal Daniel Osbourne (Rob Mallard), who is under suspicion over the disappearance of Lauren Bolton (Cait Fitton).

Daniel thinks Nicky may be able to help uncover information about Lauren from the girls she supports on the streets. Kimberly’s character disappeared from Corrie in 2022. She says: “When Nicky last was in, there wasn’t an exit story line, she was just dropped off in a taxi at home. So I’m presuming she’d gone to have a brew. Corrie was never done in my head, it was just a dot dot dot. So when they asked me to come back with this storyline I was always going to say yes.”

Recalling the moment her life changed for ever, Kimberly was making costumes for a production of Cinderella in St Helens, Merseyside, in 2020 when she got the call to say she had the part. In 2022 she was back there, playing Cinders. She compares her reaction to that of two X Factor stars. She says: “It was a mixture between Rylan Clark, when he got through to judges’ houses, and Leona Lewis’s Bleeding Love when she cries down the wall in the video.

“It had been a long road and I had arrived. I’ll just never forget that feeling of knowing I did it. It was all worth it in the end. I said it out loud to my dad then rang my mum, Gill. She was beside herself.” Life-long Corrie fan Kimberly was understandably star-struck on set in the early days. David Nielsen (Roy Cropper) showing you where you get your lunch. It’s not normal. You sort of have to chill out or else you might come across as a weirdo.”