Inside Corrie star Helen Worth's personal life: cheating ex, surprising age and secret marriage

Coronation Street legend Helen Worth thankfully hasn't had as many husbands as her on-screen character Gail Platt.

Gail, who's confirmed to be leaving the soap after 50 years on the Cobbles, has had quite the unlucky love life with a total of five husbands, four of whom have died, including a notorious serial killer who attempted to wipe out her whole family.

Helen playfully confessed that she'd "be in a mental institution" if her real-life mirrored Gail's as she said: "I come home and see friends and go to the theatre. Luckily I find it quite easy to switch off I'd be a nervous wreck if I didn't."

Even though she has been part of the Coronation Street family for almost 50 years, the actress does not reside in Manchester, where the show is filmed.

She instead lives in London, from where she commutes to set but still identifies strongly with her northern roots, having grown up in Morecambe, Lancashire, the Mirror reports.

The 73-year-old, who looks fabulous for her age, has only married twice, proving that she doesn't share Gail's tendency to rush down the aisle.

With the nation mourns Helen's decision to leave Coronation Street after five decades, we take a closer look into her personal life..

Helen's first husband was Michael Angelis, an actor who gained fame for voicing the children's series Thomas the Tank Engine and Friends. Their romance kicked off in the mid-70s and led to marriage in 1991.

However, their union ended 10 years later following his affair with Jennifer Khalastchi, the Welsh model he would later wed.

In an interview with The Mirror in 2001, Helen confessed to using her job as a means of escape and feeling as if she was "drowning" and sinking under the weight of the revelation.

She shared: "being dragged down. Nothing can ever prepare you for the day your husband sits you down and tells you he is having an affair.

"My marriage was everything to me. It was the foundation on which everything else was built. I had been with Michael for nearly half of my life. I never imagined that we wouldn't grow old together."

She described the moment when he confessed, explaining: "When he told me, everything just went black. Things started to make sense. Maybe I realised right away that something like that had been bound to happen.

"Things hadn't been right for some time, but - naively maybe - I didn't think it was serious. I knew there was a problem. I just didn't know it was me."

However, in spite of all the hurt, Helen harboured no ill feelings against her former husband. They remained on good terms, meeting regularly for lunch until his untimely passing in 2020.

She stated: "He was called a love rat and a cheat. But he wasn't. That's not how it was, things are never that easy. He just met someone who made him happier than I could. It wasn't a crime. It was just desperately sad."

In retrospect, she asserted, "I know now that Michael suffered as much as I did. He still loved me when he left. It tore him apart that he was hurting me. He would never willingly have caused me pain. He is the gentlest man I know."

Following their split, Helen remained single for a while before kindling a rapid romance with a deputy headmaster.

Coronation Street actress Helen Worth found love with Trevor Dawson at a mutual pal's 90th birthday bash, where he was smitten from the get-go, declaring it "love at first sight".

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Trevor, who's seven years Helen's junior, was already an admirer, having watched her on the telly for years.

He previously told the Mirror in 2016: "We watch the show together. I had always been a fan going back some years. I used to watch it with my mum. Of course, Gail was my favourite."

The pair managed to keep their budding romance under wraps for over a year before tying the knot at St James's Church in London in 2012, surrounded by Helen's Corrie colleagues.

The wedding drew a crowd of nearly 200 supporters who applauded as the couple made their exit from the church.

Overwhelmed with joy, Helen expressed her gratitude: "It's been the most fantastic day, it has exceeded all expectations. We are thrilled that so many of our friends and family could be here to celebrate with us."

Trevor, a former church organist and skilled pilot, shares Helen's enthusiasm for wildlife conservation. He credits Helen's cooking prowess as part of her charm, jokingly saying: "Cooking is Helen's department. I do the consuming. She's really good."

Helen has often expressed her fondness for working on Coronation Street and her desire to remain part of the show for many more years.

However, this week she made the unexpected announcement that she would be departing from the iconic soap at the end of the year after half a century on the show.

In a heartfelt statement, Helen remarked: "This year felt like the perfect time to leave the show after celebrating 50 years in the most wonderful job on the most wonderful street in the world.

" I made the decision at the start of the year and spoke to the producers who were very kind and understanding."

"I have been truly blessed to have been given the most incredible scripts week in week out, and to have worked with fantastic actors, directors and a brilliant crew. The past 50 years have flown by and I don't think the fact that I am leaving has quite sunk in yet."

Iain MacLeod, the executive producer, paid tribute by saying: "The words 'legend' and 'icon' get used a lot these days but they genuinely do apply to Gail and to Helen Worth.

"However, given her humility, I know Helen won't thank me for saying so! In Helen's hands, Gail has been a huge part of Coronation Street for five decades and at the centre of some of the most memorable storylines - often deriving from her catastrophically bad luck in choosing husbands!

"Her ill-fated marriage to Richard Hillman was one of the most ground-breaking stories in soap history and cemented Gail's already established status as one of the Corrie greats.

"As the matriarch of the Platt clan, her affectionately prickly relationships with her kids and flighty mum Audrey epitomise what makes the show great -complicated family dynamics brought to life impeccably by Helen's dramatic and comedic chops, alongside those of her fictional clan."

He continued: "Gail has given us countless hours of entertainment but it should also be said that Helen herself is a consummate professional and a thoroughly good egg.

"Everyone connected to the show will miss having her around the place just as much as the viewers will miss having her on their screens and we wish her all the very best for the future."

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