Suranne Jones, 47, is the first to confess that when she's not filming gritty dramas like Hostage or Unforgiven, she leads a fairly normal life with her husband Laurence Akers and their son. The Coronation Street actress, who won a BAFTA TV award in 2015 for her role as betrayed wife Gemma in Doctor Foster, married the editor of Nikon Pro magazine in London following a whirlwind six-month romance in 2015, and they welcomed their first child in 2016.
While Suranne tends to keep her family life away from the spotlight, she has shared some candid comments about motherhood and her private routine with her nine-year-old boy.
Son's birth
© UK Press via Getty ImagesSuranne's son was born in March 2016, two months after revealing she was pregnant at the National Television Awards. However, she had some complications at the birth that required her to have a C-section, leading to what she described as a "haze" during her first few weeks of motherhood.
"If I could go back to one time in my life, I would like to revisit the first week of having my son. It’s all such a haze. I had to have a C-section, and it came out of the blue because he was breached. So I’d like to have that week with him, but without the haze and the shock. So I could remember it properly. I look a lot at photos of that person in that moment and I wish I could be back there, really in it, really present. That’d be lovely," she told The Big Issue.
Work-life balance
Suranne went on to reveal that she also struggled to juggle her career with her parenting duties, but she has since found a better balance.
"I had a good few years of thinking, I’m not a good enough mother. I’m not a good enough wife. And I’m not really doing a very good job of acting because I’m worried about those other things. I think now I’ve got more of a balance; I’m very fortunate to be able to say, I’m not going to work for a bit because I have to just not work, and I have to be at the school gate and go to my son’s terrible joke-telling session. It really was not very good, but I was there," said Suranne.
© InstagramWhile she rarely shares photos of her son to protect his privacy, Suranne gave fans a peek inside her sun-soaked holiday in April 2025. Next to a photo of her playing on a unicorn inflatable in the pool, she wrote: "2 weeks to go! Miss my family… love my job… exhausted but creating.. all of it #frauds."
Parenting guidance
Suranne opened up about losing her mother to Alzheimer's when her son was just one, admitting it has been especially difficult not having her to turn to for advice as her son grows up. "There’s so much to tell her about what life has been like as a mum, what I thought I was getting into with marriage, and what actually you get into with a child. I’d like to talk to her about being a wife and a mother. Because I lost her too early," Suranne added.
Daily routine
© InstagramSuranne told The Telegraph that her ideal weekend with her husband and son involves wholesome family breakfasts, activities and birthday parties.
The mother-of-one's day begins at 7 am, when her son will begin to wake up the house. "We may have a lie-in because our son, who’s eight soon, will go downstairs to feed the dogs. We have two sausage dogs, Mickey and Chase, who are brothers. He lets them out and then upstairs to wreak havoc!" she admitted.
By 11 am, Suranne said that she "negotiates" homework time, stating: "It’s all about negotiations. It is usually, ‘You can play Minecraft if you do this.’ I’m not good when I don’t have a routine."
© Mike MarslandAs well as active children's birthday parties, such as rock climbing and football, she said she also likes to spend time with her son away from screens. "I will play Hot Wheels, Laurence will do Lego and Batman. I’m away a lot, so that time is precious to me."
Son's reaction to her work
During the week, Suranne makes time to pick her son up from school, but she said he was less excited to see her after she changed her appearance for her latest role as Prime Minister Abigail Dalton in Hostage.
Speaking about cutting her hair short, she confessed in an interview with The Metro: "It’s taken me a long time to grow it back. My son hated it. He said, 'Mummy, please don’t pick me up at the school gates.'"
