Emmerdale star Laura Norton opened up on her children’s Usher syndrome diagnosis during an emotional first episode of ITVBe’s Drama Queens on Wednesday. 

The actress, 40, took 18 months off from the ITV soap after welcoming her second child to the world in October 2022.

Laura is also mother to a son called Jesse, three, who she shares with her fiancé Mark Jordon, 59.

Now, Laura has discussed how she feels about finishing her maternity leave and reflected on her children’s diagnosis in a new soap-star reality series Drama Queens.

She explained: ‘I have something that I’m carrying now that we never had before and life is not what it once was… It’s heartbreaking.

‘The scary thing for us was the unknown and does it stop them from doing things… There’s so much to think about.’

Usher syndrome is a rare genetic disease that affects both hearing and vision.

It causes deafness or hearing loss and an eye disease called retinitis pigmentosa (RP). Sometimes, it also causes problems with balance.

Laura added: ‘It might sound really weird to hear this but I feel like the babies having this diagnosis… I’ve found my purpose.

‘I can use my platform and you can use yours and we can do something really amazing,’ she added.

‘So now I’ve just got to rock going back to work so they can see that mummy rocks.’

While Laura – who plays Kerry Wyatt in Emmerdale – is delighted to be back on set, she admits she needs to ‘work on my mum guilty feelings’ while she is separated from her offspring.

She added to the Mirror: ‘At the same time, I know it’s an amazing example to set to the kids showing them that I am working.’

Laura continued: ‘I have become that annoying person who says, ‘Would you like to see another picture?’

‘My friend laughed the other day and said, ‘That needs to stop’, but I can’t help it.’

Laura has been a cast member since 2012 while her fiancé Mark is known to Emmerdale viewers as Daz Spencer, and first appeared on the show in 2014, before returning for a stint between 2017 and 2019.

While the couple have been engaged since 2018, they still have on wedding plans in place.

Soap star Laura gave birth to a baby girl named Ronnie in October 2022.