Jodie Prenger, who plays beloved barmaid Glenda Shuttleworth on Coronation Street, has a private life that contrasts sharply with her on-screen alter-ego. The actress, who joined the ITV soap in 2022, has been engaged to businessman Simon Booth since 2012 but faced tragedy when her father died from kidney cancer just days after the proposal.
Jodie Prenger's rise to fame
Jodie first came to viewers' attention after winning BBC's I Do Anything in 2008 to play Nancy in Oliver in the West End. The performer has also starred in Annie as Miss Hannigan, Shirley in Shirley Valentine, and as Kelly in the late Kay Mellor's Fat Friends the musical. She has also been in the National Theatre's production of A Taste of Honey.
Beyond theatre, Jodie has done presenting stints as a regular contributor on The Alan Titchmarsh Show and This Morning. She also became a guest panellist on ITV's Loose Women and presented the midweek National Lottery draw on BBC One. Her other TV credits include appearances on Waterloo Road, Casualty and Years and Years.
Jodie's engagement to Simon Booth
Jodie is engaged to businessman Simon Booth, whom she started dating in 2010 after being friends for several years. Speaking about her romance with Simon at the time, she told Belfast Telegraph: "He's wonderful, sensitive and it just hits you like a ton of bricks when you meet someone who ticks all the right boxes."
In 2012, Jodie and Simon got engaged. Recalling the special day, she told The Sunday Post in 2017: "It was St Patrick's Day 2012 in an Irish oyster bar. That year I'd been invited to Buckingham Palace on St Valentine's Day for Charles Dickens' bicentenary alongside Cameron, Rowan Atkinson and lots of others. I had it in my mind Simon was going to propose on the day I'd met the Queen."
She added: "We went to the restaurant but he didn't ask, which was a real shock. But when we were back on St Patrick's Day, at the same table, when I wasn't expecting it, he proposed." She also revealed: "I found out he had actually had it all prepared a while before in Ireland with a choir booked and everything and had to cancel it when I had to fly to Australia to film the I'm A Celebrity spin-off show."
Tragic loss of her father
Jodie and Simon's love story became tainted with heartbreak when Jodie's dad Marty sadly died of kidney cancer in March 2012. His death came just days after Jodie and Simon got engaged.
"I've never experienced the extremes of emotion that I have in the past weeks," she told HELLO! at the time. Jodie added: "I'm just so glad Dad knew I was going to be taken care of. Dad loved Simon like a son and always said I'd be safe with him. Simon's a good man with a good soul, just like my dad."
A few years later, Jodie revealed she had stalled her wedding plans due to dad Marty not being there to give her away on her big day. She said on Loose Women in 2016: "I'm engaged. I've been engaged for four years now. I think the thing is with me is that it's hard to plan it and that's because a lot of people who I want to be there, like my dad, won't be there. My dad won't be able to give me away because he won't be there. I don't like to face reality really. I've got my best mate but I don't want to face that big day."
Coronation Street airs Monday to Friday at 8:30pm on ITV1 and ITVX.
