Laura Norton, 39, and Mark Jordon, 58, have revealed that both of their young children have been diagnosed with a rare genetic condition.
The engaged couple, best known for their roles across British soaps such as Emmerdale and Heartbeat, only just welcomed their second child, baby daughter Ronnie, in October 2022.
But family life with the newborn has been tainted with health stresses, as both Ronnie and their son Jesse, two, have been diagnosed with Usher syndrome.
Usher syndrome is a rare genetic disease that affects both hearing and vision, requiring both children to wear hearing aids for the rest of their lives – and potentially deal with sight loss into their teenage years.
Admitting that she was ‘in tears’ at the thought of something being wrong with her children before learning of the condition, Laura has this week opened up about how they are dealing with the health knockback and adjusting.
In a new interview with Hello! Magazine, the couple, who met on the set of Emmerdale in 2014, spoke out on the condition for the first time.
Laura is known for portraying Kerry Wyatt in Emmerdale, meeting her fiance, who portrayed PC Phil Bellamy in series Heartbeat, when he briefly joined the soap cast as Daz Spencer.
They often share a glimpse into family life with their two little ones via social media, but have kept the diagnosis, which they first suspected in 2021, under wraps.
Talking to Hello!, the pair admitted that the young children do not yet know of their condition, but as parents, they felt ready to talk about it in public in order to help others.
‘We’ve agonised about doing this before we’ve even told our children about their condition… we’re going to write them a letter to explain why we did ths and show then when they’re old enough to understand,’ shared Mark.
The couple first worried that there could be health issues shortly after the birth of son Jesse in 2021, when he failed standard hearing tests.
As further tests confirmed that something wasn’t right with his hearing, Laura explained that she had a gut worry that there was an issue, sharing: ‘My intuition told me there was a serious problem and I was in tears at the thought of it’.
Laura and Mark didn’t learn that it was Usher Syndrome until they were expecting second child Ronnie – when they were told during a medical assesment that they were both carriers of the gene which causes the condition.
