Michelle Keegan discovers suffragette link

12 March 2018

Michelle Keegan discovered her family has connections to the Suffragettes while filming 'Who Do You Think You Are?' for BBC One.

Michelle Keegan

The former 'Coronation Street' actress has filmed an episode tracing back her ancestry for the ancestry series, and her journey took her to the Pankhurst Centre in her hometown of Manchester.

Speaking to The Sun newspaper, an insider revealed: "Michelle is a huge signing and, given her incredible family history, producers were thrilled. Her episode promises to be one of the most exciting in the programme's history as filming took her to the Pankhurst Centre in Manchester, where she discovered some Suffragette connections. It got quite emotional and it was particularly timely given all the attention there has been on girl power this year with the #MeToo movement."

As well as a connection to the movement - which saw women campaign for the right to vote in the UK in the late 19th and early 20th centuries - the 'Our Girl' star also travelled further afield to discover more about her family.

The source added: "Michelle also jetted over to Gibraltar where her grandmother is from. She is really excited about the project and it makes such a difference to her day-to-day drama roles."

It comes after Michelle revealed she was the one to convince her husband Mark Wright to pursue a career in America.

The 30-year-old actress sat down with her spouse - who is now a presenter on 'EXTRA' in the US - last year before she decided to sign on for a new series of 'Our Girl', which meant being abroad for eight months, to discuss their options and she suggested he spent the time following his dreams Stateside.

Speaking to the new issue of Cosmopolitan magazine, she said: "Before I went to South Africa last April, we were sat in the gym car park and he was asking how long [I'd be away for]. I said, 'What do you want to do?' He said, 'I don't know.' And I said, 'When I'm away, why don't you do to America?' He had an agent here. So he did - and look what's happened. It's unbelievable."