Coronation Street star Simon Gregson, who is at the centre of the soap's harrowing miscarriage storyline, has revealed that he and his wife Emma have suffered 11 miscarriages.

Gregson, who has played Steve McDonald in the ITV soap for 27 years, said the couple's losses have influenced the storyline with his onscreen wife Michelle Connor (Kym Marsh) that will explore the different ways the pair grieve.

Gregson, 42, said that he and wife Emma Gleave lost their first child at 21 weeks and four days.

"As a bloke you feel completely helpless," he said.

Marsh also lost her baby Archie with ex-partner Jamie Lomas at 21 weeks in 2009 and said recreating the stillbirth was the best way to "honour" her late son.

In Wednesday night's episode, Marsh's character went into labour at 23 weeks into her pregnancy, resulting in the death of her and Steve's baby Ruairi at birth.

"Men and women grieve differently," Gregson said. "We decided to let Michelle show the raw emotion, but Steve's grief will come later."

He was prompted to discuss the full extent of his and Gleave's losses when his wife was targeted by an online troll over the storyline.

Marsh, 40, said she felt compelled to take on the story and encourage people to open up about their own experiences.

The programme, which continues to Friday's episode, sees Michelle and Steve go through the heartache of being told that because their baby was born before 24 weeks, he will not be given a birth certificate.

Comparing it to her own experience, Marsh said: "Calling my son a late miscarriage was one of the things that really got to me because I had just given birth to a baby, I didn't miscarry him.

"When I'm not here any more, nobody will know that my baby existed, and that is upsetting for a lot of women I think."

While there was a psychotherapist on the set to offer counselling, Marsh and Gregson revealed how the process forced them both to delve into memories they had been trying to avoid.

"I didn't know what was in the box until I lifted the lid off," Marsh added.

"You never get over it, but you learn to live with it, and diving back into that place that I spent years coming out of strangely helped me to realise that I have accepted that it happened to me.

"There will not be a single day that goes by that I don't think about him, but I am able to talk and reach out to other people who have been in that situation."

The script was developed with advice from specialist bereavement group Sands, which ensured that proper terminology and information was used so the story would relate to viewers who have had similar experiences.