Jill Halfpenny believes in ghosts, she admits as The Sunday Post catches up with the ex-Coronation Street and EastEnders actor at her Northumberland home. From the living room window, she and 16-year-old son Harvey can watch the waves crashing against the pier. The move was a dream come true for who got her break aged 14 in the children’s TV show Byker Grove alongside Anthony McPartlin and Declan Donnelly, now the UK’s top entertainment duo Ant & Dec.
Leaving London, where she’d lived from the age of 18, was a turning point in her life and part of the effort to rebuild it after the agonising grief she endured following the death of her adored 43-year-old partner Matt Janes from a heart attack at a gym in 2017. The tragedy sparked the unresolved trauma of the loss in 1979 of her father Colin, who was playing football when he also suffered a heart attack. Jill was only four at the time.
Having questioned if she could ever feel joy again, the actress, with a broad smile and bright eyes, reveals life is at last good. She sought help to live with the loss and, seven years on, has a new love she says she knows Matt approves of. ‘It was a sign’ “I do believe in ghosts,” she smiles, tenderly.
“I have felt Matt’s presence in messages and signs.” Reliving one such experience, she tells The Sunday Post about sitting on the floor, putting on her make-up, Matt’s picture beside her: “I was going on the second date with my new partner, Ian, and I was talking to Matt..
