Coronation Street star Sue Cleaver, who was adopted at just 10 days old, has a real-life story that could rival any plot on the famous cobbles of the long-running soap. In 1986, when she was 23, Sue landed a minor role in the play Oedipus at Manchester's Royal Exchange Theatre. However, her co-star Michael N Harbour was taken aback when he first saw her, exclaiming to the stage manager: "Oh my God, she's the spitting image of my wife when I met her.
" Despite their significant age difference, Sue and 41-year-old Michael quickly became close friends. In her revealing new memoir A Work in Progress, Sue writes: "I was completely obsessed with him and fascinated by his stories about his family, I wasn't sure why." During a Sunday lunch gathering with the cast, Michael teased Sue about her Northern accent before asking about her birthplace and date of birth.
When she revealed that she was actually born in Barnet, Greater London, not the North, and that her birthday was September 2, 1963, Michael immediately phoned his wife Lesley, declaring: "I've found her." As it transpired, Sue's biological mother Lesley Sizer Grieve had given her up for adoption as a 17-year-old single mother, five years prior to meeting Michael, reports the Mirror . Sue, originally named Claire Grieve at birth, was adopted by a young couple, Fred and John Cleaver, and grew up with their five-year-old son Paul.
Lesley and Michael later had two daughters who were unaware of their half-sister's existence. However.