Actress Julia Goulding has opened up about the ‘horrendous’ exit of her co-star while also issuing a warning to another

Coronation Street star Julia Goulding has opened up about the ‘horrendous’ exit of her co-star while also issuing a warning to another as she discussed her latest storyline as Shona Platt.

As fans of the ITV soap know, the actress’ character will soon be waving goodbye to mother-in-law Gail Platt as she leaves the cobbles this Christmas. A wedding is on the horizon for the Platt matriarch following the return of Jesse Chadwick.

However, as Corrie viewers also know, it’s never a dull moment in the Platt household, but with Gail due her fairytale ending on Christmas Day, will the warring Platt family allow Gail and Jesse their winter wonderland wedding or will family feuds put a stop to Gail riding off into the sunset with her sixth husband?

Whatever happens the episode will mark the end of acting legend Helen Worth’s 50 years in Coronation Street and leave the Platts entering a new era without the matriarch who held them all together.

Speaking about Helen’s exit, Julia told the Manchester Evening News: “It was horrendous and emotional on so many levels. From my point of view, personally, I’ve not only worked with Helen for eight years I’ve watched her since I can remember. Gail has been part of my life since I started watching Corrie, the last eight years getting to know Helen as a person as well. It was incredibly emotional and [like], ‘Off you go Helen… enjoy!'”

With Gail gone, Julia was asked if David and Shona could step up and become a ‘classic Corrie’ couple, to which the soap star said: “I actually prefer to when they’re struggling. The drama is so much more fun to play. But yeah it’s lovely and really nice and we’ve got such a big family unit, and the kids – you’ve got Harry, Sam and Lilly, it’s the new David, Sarah and Nick, the next generation. And also we’ve still got Sue [Nicholls – Audrey Roberts] because she’s brilliant!”

It comes after Corrie fans were made aware that Shona slept with Kit Green following a row with David over his recent deception. As fans know, David, played by Jack P Shepherd, started sneaking around intercepting letters sent through the post and deleting emails from Shona’s laptop before it was revealed she was being contacted by Weatherfield Prison about her son, Clayton Hibbs, who killed David’s late wife, Kylie Platt.

He went to visit Clayton himself and despite being apologetic for what had happened in the past, including killing Kylie and threatening to kill Shona, David told him his mum wanted nothing to do with him. It was later revealed that Clayton tried to take his own life and once in hospital, he refused to see his mum who has been beside herself.

David then continued to hide any knowledge if Clayton getting in touch while Shona despaired when her son refused to see her. But David’s lie was finally exposed by his stepson Max Turner during last Wednesday night’s (December 4) Corrie. David was seen confiding in Max about how he intercepted visiting orders that Clayton had sent from prison and confirmed he’d visited him behind his wife’s back but when Shona confronted the prison govner and attacked him, Max was forced to come clean.

A confrontation between the married couple later ensued but David didn’t appear sympathetic and didn’t think Shona should care about Clayton either. The row was interrupted as DC Kit Green arrived to arrest Shona on suspicion of assaulting the prison governor. Shona was later released without charge, but she refused to go home to David and asked cabbie Steve McDonald to drive her back into town instead.

It wasn’t until the end of Friday night’s (December 6) trip to the cobbles that it was revealed that Shona had infact slept with Kit, having taken the morning after pill earlier, which was found by her husband, who accused her of sleeping with Adam Barlow after she crashed at his following her liason with Kit.

Could this be a problem for her going forward? “So far he’s been nothing but nice to her,”Julia said. “I think she’s wary of him but mainly because she’s so scared of the secret coming out. I don’t think she’s that worried about him yet. I don’t think she’d have gone with him if she knew how ruthless he was.”

She then later warned her Kit co-star Jacob Roberts as when asked about being part of the legendary Platt family, Julia said: “It’s great and I’d like to be a Platt as long as I can, so don’t come near me again [to Jacob]… Tempting me!”