KYM Marsh shocked fans when she suddenly quit Coronation Street six years ago.

But The Sun can reveal the real reason the actress, 49, decided to walk away from Weatherfield and how she now earns DOUBLE her soap salary.

Former Corrie star Kym quit the cobbles to cash in on her acting talents, and it has paid off.

The singer turned actress was pulling in around £100,000-a-year for her gruelling role as Michelle Connor.

Kym left the ITV soap to explore new, money-spinning roles and now runs a firm called Pade (Warrington) Ltd and annual accounts for the last two years indicate she’s earned around £500,000 in that period.

She quit Corrie in 2019 after 13 years.

And now she’ starring in her raunchiest role to date as she approaches 50.

Drama The Imposter, which started on Channel 5 this week, is so sizzling that Kym says some of the sex scenes had to be cut because they were too risqué for our TV screens.

Speaking about the show, set in a sprawling family-run seaside hotel in Australia, Kym added: “Episode two was particularly raunchy. It’s the flashback to London where she first meets her Australian lover.

“There was quite a lot of stuff that I believe they’ve had to tone down. I spoke to the executive working on it and he said, ‘Hey, you did it so convincingly’, and I was like . . . thanks.”

The show tells the twisted tale of sibling rivalry between the children of matriarch Helen — with deadly consequences.

Kym, who won a part in band Hear’Say in 2001 after appearing on ITV reality series Popstars, had two No. 1 singles before going solo and chalking up two more top-ten hits.

Then in 2006, her role as barmaid Michelle in Coronation Street saw her acting breakthrough, and she went on to win two Best Newcomer awards in 2008.

In 2017, she won Best Female Dramatic Performance at the British Soap Awards for a stillbirth storyline that mirrored her own tragic loss of baby Archie in 2009.

More recently, she played canteen worker Nicky Walters in BBC school drama Waterloo Road, and she regularly presents the BBC’s Morning Live on breakfast TV.

Kym, who took part in Strictly Come Dancing in 2022, is currently in rehearsals alongside Lisa Faulkner for the stage adaptation of 1990s thriller Single White Female.

At the time she quit Corrie, Kym opened more about why she decided to walk away from soap.

Speaking in 2019, she wrote in her OK! column: “I’ve loved every minute of working there and I’ve made some great friends at work but now feels like the right time for me to take a break and spread my wings.”

Kym then added: “Another big factor in my decision to take a break from Corrie is the impending arrival of my grandson. I’m looking forward to having more time to spend with him and [her daughter] Emilie after he’s born this summer”.

The star became a grandma for the first time the same year she quit Corrie, when her daughter Emilie welcomed her first child.