Coronation Street star Sue Cleaver, who was adopted at 10 days old, has revealed how she found her birth mum after a link to her co-star was discovered.

Cleaver, who is known for playing cab switchboard operator Eileen Grimshaw on Corrie, has explained in her new book, A Work in Progress, how the encounter came about.

When she was 23 years old, in 1986, Sue took on a role in the play Oedipus which was performed at the Royal Exchange Theatre in Manchester.

Her co-star Michael N Harbour went white when he saw her and now, it all makes sense.

How Coronation Street’s Sue Cleaver found her birth mum

Harbour said to the stage manager: “Oh my God, she’s the spitting image of my wife when I met her”, reports The Mirror.

Harbour was 41 at the time and despite the age gap, he and Cleaver became friends – in her book she said: “I was completely obsessed with him and fascinated by his stories about his family, I wasn’t sure why.”

One Sunday, the cast enjoyed a lunch party together where Michael started making fun of Sue’s northern accent.

He then asked her where she was born and for her date of birth. She explained that she wasn’t born in the north and that actually she was born in Barnet, Greater London and confirmed she was born on September 2, 1963.

On finding this out, Michael made a phone call to his wife Lesley immediately, announcing: “I’ve found her.”

Sue now knows that her birth mother Lesley Sizer Grieve was a 17-year-old single mum when she made the decision to give her up for adoption – this was five years before she met Michael.

Sue’s birth name was Claire Grieve and she was adopted by Fred and John Cleaver who were a young couple who also had a five-year-old son Paul.

Lesley and Michael went on to have two daughters who didn’t know they had a half-sister, however, Michael knew his wife had always wondered about her eldest child.

Michael broke the news to Sue, telling her: “You are my wife’s daughter,” and arranged to take her to meet Lesley in a hotel.

On meeting her birth mother, Sue said: “The walk to the door felt like it went on forever. I felt such a mixture of anticipation, excitement, fear and adrenaline. We embraced and just talked and talked until 5am.”

She added: “It was almost like a love story. The first two weeks were very heady; we had to be around each other, we had to call each other. She never ever felt like my mum. My Mum who brought me up is [my] mum. But there was a definite attachment.”

Lesley died at the start of the coronavirus pandemic but Sue is still in contact with her half-sisters.

Sue shared the relationship she has with her half-sisters: “I’ve got two lovely half-sisters. I’m close to them and I see Kate, the youngest one, quite a bit. My Mum and Dad were so welcoming; Lesley came to my father’s funeral. It’s very much like [we’re] part of a bigger family; it’s been lovely.”

Recommended reading:

To add another twist to the story, her Corrie co-star Helen Worth who plays Gail Platt is the Godmother of one of Sue's half-sisters and was once a flatmate of Lesley's.

“She knew that Lesley had this child [she’d given up],” Sue said. “And Helen is Godmother to one of my half-sisters!”

Sue Cleaver's memoir A Work In Progress will be available from September 26, 2024 and fans can pre-order it now.