Coronation Street’s Melanie Hill has decided to quit the ITV soap after seven years.
The actress, who turned 60 this year, has made the “difficult decision” to spend more time with her family after re-evaluating life during the coronavirus pandemic.
For the past seven years, Melanie has been best known for her role as newsagent owner Cathy Mathews on the iconic soap.
It was a choice that Melanie toyed with lightly and final decision to walk away has left her feeling “extremely emotional”.
While the soap star has loved every minute of her acting journey, she had found filming relentless at times.
One particular family incident left the television star needing to support her poorly mum and that was something she simply couldn’t have done if she was devoting all of her time to the cobbles.
(Image: WireImage)
In an interview with The Mirror, Melanie said: “It’s not been an easy thing to decide. My family has been important but the pandemic has made a lot of people think about the future.
“It has changed a lot of things in my head. You’ve just got to see what’s important to you. I absolutely love everybody but it’s made me think about my family a lot and what the priorities are in my life.”
While Melanie plans to leave the cobbles behind she will not be giving up on her acting career just yet.
In fact, she is hoping to pursue other roles like the BBC One drama The Syndicate which will give her the freedom to flex her time between family and work.
Melanie confirmed that she had been able to spend the past few weeks with her sick mum as she’d already finished her filming her last episode.
The actress explained that ordinarily her sister would take care of their mother but she was unable to help this time after suffering a nasty injury to her leg.
Having already given up on Corrie weeks ago, meant the Melanie was able to step-in to assist.
She commented to the same publication: “My sister Samantha normally helps look after my mum but she is in hospital with a smashed leg.
“It’s lucky that I finished shooting just over two weeks ago so I’m here the whole time. If I was still working on Corrie, I would have been going out of my mind with worry. I cannot stand letting people down – and even if I’ve been ill, I would turn up for work. Now I don’t have to worry as much.”
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Source: Celebrities - dailystar.co.uk
