Coronation Street actress Kym Marsh has revealed she keeps the ashes of the baby boy she lost in a box next to her bed.

The 41-year-old, who plays Michelle Connor, lost son Archie prematurely in 2009.

ITV Gala 2017 – London
Kym Marsh attending the ITV Gala at the London Palladium (Ian West/PA)

She told Sunday Mirror: “I think of Archie every day. I still talk to him to say goodnight or I love you.”

A box engraved with his ashes is kept at her bedside, she told the paper.

She said: “We took his ashes home in a tiny box and I keep them next to my bed.”

The soap actress confronted her own real life loss on screen last year with a storyline which saw Michelle suffer a miscarriage at 23 weeks.

The actress, a former member of Hear’Say, told the paper it was a  “wound that will never heal”, adding: “There will always be an Archie shaped hole in our lives.”

In February, Marsh will host Archie’s Footprint Ball in aid of The Mariposa Trust, a charity supporting those affected by the loss of a child during “any stage of pregnancy, at birth or in infancy”.