Emmerdale's Laura Norton on 'tough decision' to 'out' her children with rare syndrome

The actress shares two children with former soap star Mark Jordon

Emmerdale star Laura Norton shared that it was a "tough decision" when discussing her children's rare syndrome as she felt as though she had "outed" them.

Actress Laura Norton first joined the ITV soap in 2012 as Kerry Wyatt. Her character left the Dales in 2022 to work on a cruise ship after struggling to cope the death of her partner Al Chapman. In real life, Laura took the 16-month absence for maternity leave.

Laura met her now fiancé Mark Jordon on the set of Emmerdale back in 2015, with the couple starting to date shortly after. Mark also starred on Emmerdale in the role of Daz Spencer before he left in 2019.

They now share two children together, four-year-old Jesse and two-year-old Ronnie. The the pair have revealed that both of their children suffer from the same condition, Usher syndrome, which causes impairments to hearing and vision.

This means that those diagnosed will wear hearing aids for their whole life, as well as suffering from sight loss at a later point.

Speaking to Best Magazine, Laura recently shared: "It's a genetic condition which causes hearing and vision loss. Going public was a tough decision because obviously we're kind of outing the children before they know.

"But we realised we could never make a difference unless we actively did something. Mark and I are now board members, trustees and patrons of the charity."

She continued: "In the beginning, it was about our babies. And then you meet other families going through the same thing and it becomes about everyone else.

"It's such a rare condition and so many people have never heard of it and this community deserves to have people fighting for them and helping raise funds."

The actress reflected on how finding a cure has become her "life mission", as she added: "It's a life mission for me and Mark.

"We've both got a job that we love and we feel very lucky to have that, but when something like this comes along and pulls the rug from under your feet, you question it - 'How is this our life?'

"But weirdly we both think it was meant to be. I've never felt more purpose in my life."

Emmerdale airs on weekdays at 7:30pm on ITV1 and is available to stream on ITVX.