CORRIE STAR'S SPLIT WITH FAMILY

FORMER Coronation Street beauty Jacqueline Pirie is at the centre of a mysterious rift with her family after ditching her acting career to become a script writer.

Jacqueline, 28, achieved notoriety when she took on the character of bed-hopping machinist Linda Sykes in the soap and was tipped to become one of Britain's best loved actresses after her explosive storylines gripped viewers.

But with the world at her feet, she sensationally turned her back on the limelight in 2001 and vowed never to go before the cameras again.

Now her family have become worried for her health after she broke off contact with relatives in Scotland - and her parents in Birmingham.

Jacqueline's aunt Janet Simpson, 40, has not seen her niece for two years.

At her home in Stirling, she said: "I have no idea why she doesn't want to get in contact with us and it's heart-breaking."

The ex-star is now believed to be living at a secret address in the West Midlands and raising her family.

Her relatives have no idea of her whereabouts and they say she hasn't even tried to phone them in years.

Her distraught family have even trawled the internet to find her but have come up with nothing.

Mother-of-three Mrs Simpson added: "I used to push her in her pram when she was young and take care of her. We were very close once but now it's like she's fallen off the face of the earth.

"It was my parents' Golden Wedding anniversary on December 19 and we wanted to find Jacqueline and bring her home to surprise them.

"But our efforts produced nothing and we've all but given up hope. We're a close family but Jacqueline's behaviour has really puzzled us.

"We've heard reports she's living in Wigan, Manchester, Birmingham and Wales so we don't know where to begin to look.

"Even so, she mustn't be that far away and it would be easy to get in touch. But we haven't received as much as a phone call.

"It's not as though we've had a family row or something, we just don't know what the reason is.

"It's very strange."

Jacqueline's grandmother Muriel is equally confused. She said: "I haven't heard from Jacqueline for a while. We really haven't had much contact and I don't know what she's up to." And Muriel said Jacqueline's parents Patricia and James have been cast off by her too. "Her mum and dad think she is living somewhere in Birmingham but they haven't heard a thing from her," she said.

Former child star Jacqueline's big break arrived in 1994 when she was cast as sleazy Tina Dingle in the long-running TV soap Emmerdale.

To her fans' disappointment, she quit the role two years later to become a full-time mother when she got pregnant with daughter Alex. But she made her mark on television in 1998 with her first appearance on Coronation Street playing sexy machinist Linda Sykes. Her character was involved in one of the show's most shocking storylines ever, when she had a steamy affair with husband Mike Baldwin's son Mark. It was a massive ratings puller when, moments after Mike and Linda wed, Mark drunkenly confessed all to his dad.

In March 2001 it was announced she was expecting her second child by new love fireman Simon Chadwick, who she met just weeks earlier at a nightclub. They were married April 2001 in a secret ceremony on the banks of Loch Lomond with just her daughter and two hotel staff as witnesses. Jacqueline left Corrie in September 2001 during complications in her pregnancy and spent an agonising six weeks on sick leave.

After months of speculation, it was announced the following year she would not return to the show.

Although she vowed never to act again, Jacqueline has written several television scripts which she is offering to studios through her former agent Lou Coulson.

She said: "I know very little about her these days except she's trying to begin a writing career of some sort. She has not been with us for some time and does not keep contact."

Jacqueline's life off-camera has often been as colourful as her on- screen plotlines. Christopher Stone, the father of her first child, is a convicted violent criminal dubbed the "Birmingham Gangster".

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