Yahoo News Coronation Street's Maria to dump Gary after Liam collapse incident
Coronation Street spoilers follow.
Coronation Street's Maria Connor refuses to forgive her husband Gary Windass next week following a frightening incident involving her son Liam.
Maria bitterly blames Gary for not being there to rescue Liam when the troubled teenager suffers a shock collapse.
The drama begins next week as Liam spends time with his friend Joseph Brown at Paul Foreman and Billy Mayhew's flat.
Liam confides in Joseph about how he has been suffering from panic attacks following his bullying ordeal with Mason Radcliffe, but hasn't told Maria because he doesn't want to worry her.
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While rummaging through cupboards for sweets, Liam finds Paul's secret stash of Benzo pills and puts them in his pocket.
Meanwhile, over at the Rovers Return, Gary is concerned to spot Sarah Barlow knocking back wine as she continues to struggle following Damon Hay's imprisonment. Gary decides to head over to support her.
When Liam returns home, he's confused to find that Gary is not back. He feels a panic attack coming on and takes out Paul's Benzo pills.
Billy is first to realise that the pills are missing and Joseph mentions that Liam was looking through cupboards earlier. Billy panics, but it's already too late as Liam lies unconscious in the flat with the pill bottle next to him.
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In the fallout from the scary incident, Maria is left suspicious a few days later as she returns home to find Gary and Sarah looking shifty together. Gary is secretly feeling regretful that he could have been there for Liam sooner if he hadn't been spending time with Sarah again.
Maria picks up some things from the flat and secretly places a camera on the side, wanting to find out what Gary and Sarah are hiding from her.
Once Maria leaves, Gary sees Sarah out of the flat. They share a final hug and agree that it's time to start keeping their distance from each other again.
Maria watches them via her phone and her face darkens as she realises that Gary is keeping secrets from her.
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The revelation leads to Maria abruptly cutting ties with Gary. Although Gary hopes for a reconciliation, Maria leaves him crushed by making it clear that it's not on the cards.
Mikey North, who plays Gary, explained: "The whole Gary and Sarah thing is something that is always there. Unfortunately, it had to be her that Gary was with when such a big thing has happened but, you know, that's the way that Gary's life tends to go.
"Gary is genuinely devastated when he finds out what has happened. He didn't realise that Liam was going to be on his own and everything had just gone wrong."
Gary already had a near-miss recently when Sarah made a pass at him and it was caught on Maria's secret spycam. On that 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 with it the first time round 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 being caught again.
"I actually loved filming this scene because obviously I knew what was going to happen and that we were going to get caught, but the timing of Maria walking in was brilliant and even made everyone cringe."
Asked whether Maria is pushing Gary away with her obsessive concern for Liam, Mikey replied: "Absolutely. I think that given the nature of what's going on, it is understandable that Maria is acting like this. Maria just wants the best for Liam and in doing so, it's to the detriment of her relationship with Gary.
"Gary knows and understands that Liam has to come first, but Gary and Maria don't always agree on how they should proceed to help Liam and I think that this is the main cause of their problems."
Coronation Street airs on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays at 8pm on ITV1 and streams on ITVX.
Read more Coronation Street spoilers on our dedicated homepage
Coronation Street has been working on Liam's storyline with support from the National Bullying Helpline (0300 323 0169 between 9am-5pm on weekdays, and 10am-12 midday on Saturdays, or email help@nationalbullyinghelpline.co.uk).
Further organisations which can offer help include Samaritans on 116 123 or Mind on 0300 123 3393. Readers in the US are encouraged to visit mentalhealth.gov or the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention.
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