“THIS IS THE REAL REASON I LEFT!”: Coronation Street’s Helen Worth breaks silence on quitting ITV soap
Helen Worth has opened up on why she really left Coronation Street after playing the iconic role of Gail Platt for 50 years. Helen, 75, was one of the shows longest running stars before she decided to leave the Corrie cobbles a year and a half ago.
During her time on the show, her character Gail was never short on drama. Gail had been married six times, with one of her husbands being tragically stabbed to death and another was a serial killer. Other storylines include her daughter Sarah’s teenage pregnancy, and the death of her fourth husband Joe McIntyre, who died during a failed life insurance scheme.
Opening up on her time on the show and reason for leaving, Helen said: “It was only a bit towards the end when I got a bit tired. But the first, how many years? 49 years, were a dream”, she told The Sun.
The actor added: “My final husband, John Thomson, was absolutely gorgeous to me, because by then I was rattling a bit. It was around about 4,000 episodes and I was rattling a little bit.” Helen went on to say: “‘I had good and bad days… but then you forget the bad days and you just remember the good days.”
Helen left the show on Christmas Day in 2024 and shared a heartwarming goodbye message. She shared a video on social media where she thanked fans for her time on the show. She said: “Hello all of you. It’s wonderful to have this opportunity to say ta ta. It’s been a fabulous 50 years and I just wanted to thank all of you some of you who may have been watching for 50 – is there anybody?”
She continued: “And those of you who have been watching for a few years thank you. Thanks for coming on the journey with me. I’ve had a wonderful time. I’ve loved it, all the stories and of course it’s been wonderful working with the wonderful Platts, which for me is what it’s all about – and there’ll be more Platt stories and I hope you’ll be watching. Lots of love and thanks from me.”
Helen‘s final scenes saw Gail finally get her happy ending, as she married Jesse Chadwick (John Thomson) and said goodbye to her family and friends.
After she had a nightmare in which her late serial killer ex-husband Richard Hillman tried to stop her marrying Jesse, Gail decided she wanted nothing more than to be Mrs Chadwick and to swap Weatherfield for a new life in France.
Having joined the cobbles in July 1974, Helen’s character has been a prominent figure in a number of explosive storylines gripping the soap over the years, with her ill-fated love life coming to define the character.
In 2014, ITV honoured the long-serving actress with a documentary celebrating her 40 years on the soap with a one-off special titled Gail & Me.
