The Coronation Street legend, who has played Steve McDonald for 35 years, said he would often drive past the soap’s set and refuse to give autographs to fans

Coronation Street legend Simon Gregson hates giving autographs to the soap’s “weird” fans.

The actor, who has played Steve McDonald for 35 years, admits he usually drives past admirers gathered outside the show’s set, fearing they will scratch his precious car’s paint. Simon says: “I’m massively into my cars… they’re my thing and I don’t want people with bags and metal things all crowding round it and scratching the hell out of it. So I’m, like, ‘No!'”

The 49-year-old is one of the country’s most recognisable TV stars, having appeared in more than 3,600 episodes of the ITV soap. But he has struggled with the attention fame brings, and even admits being repulsed by superfans. Simon says: “There’d be people on the gate all the time asking for photographs and sometimes asking for a kiss, which was horrible. There was a certain elderly lady who always had biscuits round her mouth and she would go, ‘Give us a kiss!’ It was, yeah… weird days. You never get used to it.”

Speaking about stardom, the actor who reportedly earns £150,000 a year says: “I don’t understand why anyone would want to be famous. It is the downside of the job. I was on holiday with my mates and somebody literally grabbed hold of me and dragged me across the street.”

“I didn’t know what was going on and [they] held me while they took a photograph then they walked off. People would do that. They’d drag you from one end of the pub to the other ‘Look who I’ve got!’ Very, very weird.”

And he said that fans will often interrupt him when he’s out with his wife Emma, 40, who runs their award-winning tea room, and their three sons. “People think you’re public property,” he says. “They think they’ve got the God-given right to come and sit at your table while you’re sitting there with your family, having a meal.”

“I’ve always been kind of very good with everybody. There’s been a couple of occasions where I’ve said no when I’m with my kids and they are so put out by it and so annoyed by it that it’s a lot easier just to say yes! They go, ‘I can see you’re on holiday with your children’. I’m, like, ‘But you’re gonna come over anyway!'”

But Simon who has admitted battling anxiety, which caused up to 12 panic attacks a day and made him turn to drugs and booze – told YouTube channel Deep he will make exceptions for children. Recounting one time at the ITV set in Manchester, he says: “I drove out, saw it was a young lad and I got halfway home and felt so bad I had to turn around and go back to work.”

“I found him and went, ‘Come here… did you want an autograph?’ He said ‘Yeah!’ so I signed it for him and then some adults came over and that’s when I said, ‘Not you lot!’ and left. ‘I’ll do it for the lad, but you lot are weird’.”

Simon, who has also appeared on reality show I’m A Celebrity, coming second to Emmerdale ‘s Danny Miller in 2021, says he tries not to judge fans too harshly though. “I kind of get it,” he says. “I’m pretty sure I sat next to Sean Connery in Spain once, or it was definitely a doppelganger. I was beside myself, being a massive James Bond fan. I had to grab myself and go, ‘This is what happens’, and I was, like, ‘Oh yeah, I need to forgive people’.”

Simon first walked out on the famous cobbles in 1989 at the age of 15 after being spotted by scouts visiting his school in Stockport, Greater Manchester. Despite his success, he reportedly began a side-hustle as a paid guide on Corrie’s set earlier this year to help pay off a £100,000 tax bill he received after his company, Simon Gregson Productions Ltd, went bust.

But the star is not the first to moan about his own fans. Singer Justin Bieber said in 2016 he would no longer do fan pictures as he felt “like a zoo animal”. Actress Anne Hathaway told admirers at a 2022 fashion show: “I cannot take photos with everyone as there’s too many of you, but I will stand here and wave if you would like to take a photo.”

And Harry Potter ‘s Emma Watson has said she does not want to pose for supporters’ pictures, adding: “For me, it’s the difference between being able to have a life and not.”