'Coronation Street' stars Alison King and Mikey North deny they shared kiss at National Television Awards
Coronation Street stars Alison King and Mikey North have both denied they shared a kiss at the National Television Awards (NTA).
Video footage filmed on a mobile phone at the NTAs in London’s O2 Arena last week was published by The Sun On Sunday and claimed to show the soap stars kiss, as well as see King, 44, lean her head on North’s shoulder.
But the Corrie co-stars have said they were talking in each other’s ears at the noisy awards ceremony.
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King said in a statement obtained by the Daily Mirror: “I would like to take this opportunity to say that, whilst it was obvious to see that regrettably I did have too much to drink at the National TV Awards, and chose to leave the event early, I did not kiss my co-star Mikey North as has been reported.”
King – who plays Carla Connor in the ITV soap – announced her engagement to IT consultant David Stuckley in September last year. She has a 10-year-old daughter from her relationship with Corrie sound technician Adam Huckett, which ended in 2012.
North, 33, has been married to Rachael Isherwood since 2016 and they have a two-year-old son Archie and a daughter Eliza born last September.
He said in a statement to OK! magazine: "I would like to make one thing clear: I did not kiss my co-star Alison King during the recent National Television Awards. It is beyond ludicrous to suggest that I would or that I did. The grainy recording shows me simply speaking into her ear at what was a noisy public event. This report has caused me and my family a great deal of distress.
"I have an amazing wife who I adore and, as incredibly supportive as she is, it is unacceptable that she should have to deal with people seeing this kind of baseless gossip on the front page of a newspaper.
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"I am so upset about this, and will not stand by while my personal reputation is tarnished. I have lodged an immediate complaint with the Independent Press Standards Organisation.”
North has played ex-army soldier Gary Windass in Corrie since 2008.
Businesswoman Carla first arrived on the cobbles in 2006. King announced she was leaving the soap in 2016 only to return a year later.