They both bowed out of the ITV soap within months of each other
Coronation Street star Sue Cleaver told fellow soap legend Helen Worth she was leaving at the same time she revealed her exit news.
As fans of the ITV soap know, Helen bowed out of Weatherfield at Christmas, after playing the role of Gail Platt for a whopping 50 years.
It was then in January that Sue confirmed she would also be departing the long-running show, after spending 25 years playing the role of Eileen Grimshaw.
Fans have often loved the pair for their rivalry on the Street, especially when it came to their romances. And now Sue has revealed how they each found out about each other’s plans to leave.
Speaking to The Sun, Sue said: “Weirdly enough I remember quite a long time before it came out that Helen was going, she rang me and said ‘I just wanted to ring and tell you I’m leaving’, and I went ‘Helen, I just want to tell you I’m leaving as well’.”
Their exits came as number of stars on the soap have left the much-loved Manchester institution behind, including Charlotte Jordan, Paddy Bever and Colson Smith in the past few months.
However, Sue, who starred on I’m A Celebrity Get Me Out of Here in 2022, admitted she left the soap on her terms and had actually made the decision years ago.
“I made the decision to leave when I went and did the jungle, I’d known for a while, it had been a while in the planning,” she said.
It was on June 6 that Sue’s final scenes aired as Eileen was seen ditching Weatherfield for Thailand after being given an offer to invest in a bar with her son, Jason, who made a brief return to the cobbles to see his mum.
Following the death of sister Julie Carp, Eileen was questioned her feelings about her relationships with George Shuttleworth, played by Tony Maudsley.
She was also torn when her son Jason, played by Ryan Thomas, asked her to move to Thailand to invest in her bar. At first she planned to go with George, but after discussing their relationship and coming to the realisation that it was one-sided, she departed for Thailand on her own.
But not before a celebration in the Rovers Return organised by the Streetcar drivers, before they escorted her to her car ready to leave the Street behind.
Sue told The Sun that her final scenes “brought a tear to her eye” as she saw a row of taxis lined up down the street, with her character having worked at StreetCars taxi firm during her time on the programme.
“There were moments when I had a little wave of emotion, we filmed the final scene on a Thursday and we went out for dinner and I came back on the Friday to do some other scenes and at the end of that it was really weird feeling, but it felt right.”
Speaking of her fututre, the 61-year-old said: “It was the right time for me to go, the door is still open, my hearts there, my husband still works there, I still see them all.
“But for now, it’s absolutely the right thing, it’s time for me to have some freedom, to not be committed to things, to do passion projects, which is why I’m going back to the theatre. I love doing Loose Women, there are other things I want to do and there is a lot more of the world I want to see.”