Sarah Harding: I was meant to play a lesbian on Coronation Street
Sarah Harding (Getty Images)
Girls Aloud singer Sarah Harding has revealed that she was originally meant to play a lesbian character on Coronation Street.
The singer, who has branched out into acting as well as pursuing a solo career following her band’s split in 2013, is set to make her debut on the soap as new character Jodi Preston.
Preston is the new wife of character Robert Preston – leading her to conflict with ex-wife Tracy Barlow.
However, speaking to Free Radio, Harding revealed that she was actually in line to play a lesbian character on the soap, but the idea was scrapped.
Explaining that her character could have been part of a love triangle with Sophie Webster (Brooke Vincent) and Maddie Heath (Amy Kelly), she said: “We just threw a load of ideas out there.
“At one point I was going to possibly come between the lesbian girls but it didn’t happen.”
However, the storyline was canned when Maddie Heath was killed off – and she was recast as the heterosexual Preston.
She said of her new role: “I had a slanging match on my very first day! I had to give Tracy a good slap.
“Every time they shouted cut I would be giggling because [actress] Kate [Ford] is so lovely and the complete opposite to her character.
“It was all choreographed to look nasty but I didn’t actually touch her.
“My character isn’t a baddie, but she also isn’t very nice.”
The soap currently features a number of LGB characters – with actor Daniel Brocklebank revealing that he has had death threats for playing gay vicar Billy.
Long-running transgender character Hayley Cropper was killed off in an emotional episode last year.
