Coronation Street’s Maria leaves Gary after Liam’s breakdown

Spoilers for Coronation Street follow.

Coronation Street’s Maria Connor refuses to forgive her husband Gary Windass next week after a frightening incident involving their son Liam.

Maria bitterly blames Gary for not being there to save Liam when the troubled teenager suffers a shock breakdown.

The drama begins next week as Liam spends time with his friend Joseph Brown at Paul Foreman and Billy Mayhew’s apartment.

Liam confides in Joseph about how he suffered from panic attacks after his bullying ordeal with Mason Radcliffe, but hasn’t told Maria because he doesn’t want to worry her.

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While Liam is rummaging through cupboards for candy, he finds Paul’s secret stash of benzo pills and puts them in his pocket.

Meanwhile, at Rovers Return, Gary is concerned to see Sarah Barlow drinking wine as she continues to struggle following Damon Hay’s imprisonment. Gary decides to go to her to support her.

When Liam returns home, he is confused to find that Gary is not back. He feels a panic attack and takes out Paul’s benzo tablets.

Billy is the first to notice that the pills are missing and Joseph mentions that Liam was going through cupboards earlier. Billy panics, but it’s already too late as Liam lies unconscious in the apartment, the pill bottle next to him.

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The aftermath of the scary incident leaves Maria suspicious a few days later when she returns home to find Gary and Sarah looking shady together. Gary secretly regrets that he could have been there for Liam sooner if he hadn’t spent time with Sarah again.

Maria gets a few things from the apartment and secretly puts a camera to the side to find out what Gary and Sarah are hiding from her.

As Maria leaves, Gary sees Sarah leaving the apartment. They hug one last time and agree that it’s time to keep their distance from each other again.

Maria watches them on her phone and her face darkens as she realizes Gary is keeping secrets from her.

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The revelation causes Maria to abruptly cut ties with Gary. Although Gary hopes for a reconciliation, Maria leaves him dejected by making it clear that it is not possible.

Mikey North, who plays Gary, explained: “The whole Gary and Sarah thing is something that’s always there. Unfortunately, Gary had to be with her when something so big happened, but you know, that’s just how it is.” Gary’s life tends to go by.

“Gary is really devastated when he finds out what happened. He didn’t know Liam would be alone and everything just went wrong.”

Gary recently had a near miss when Sarah attacked him and it was caught on Maria’s secret spy camera. On this occasion, he managed to intervene by deleting the footage before Maria could see it.

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Mikey continued: “He managed to get away scot-free the first time, but I guess in Soapland you always get caught in the end! Maria is always one step ahead of the game and puts the camera back, which then leads to Gary and Sarah getting caught again.

“I really enjoyed filming that scene because of course I knew what was going to happen and that we were going to get caught, but the timing of Maria coming in was brilliant and even made everyone shudder.”

When asked if Maria was pushing Gary away with her obsessive concern for Liam, Mikey replied: “Absolutely. I think that given the nature of the matter, it is understandable that Maria would behave this way. Maria only wants the best for Liam and for him.” However, this damages her relationship with Gary.

“Gary knows and understands that Liam has to come first, but Gary and Maria don’t always agree on how to go about helping Liam and I think that’s the root cause of their problems.”

Coronation Street airs and continues to stream on ITV1 on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays at 8pm ITVX.

Read more Coronation Street Spoilers on our special homepage

Coronation Street worked on Liam’s storyline with the support of National Bullying Helpline (0300 323 0169 weekdays 9am to 5pm and Saturdays 10am to 12pm or by email [email protected]).

Other organizations that can offer help include: Samaritan on 116 123 or Spirit on 0300 123 3393. Readers in the US are invited to visit mentalhealth.gov or the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention.

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