Julie Hesmondhalgh still watches 'Coronation Street' "religiously".
Julie Hesmondhalgh
The 50-year-old actress played Hayley Cropper in the ITV soap between 1998 and 2014, and she's revealed that her exit hasn't stopped her from taking a passionate interest in the show.
She said: "I love that programme. I still watch it.
"My husband [Ian Kershaw] is a writer on it. I watch it religiously, I absolutely love it, but my time on it has definitely ended."
Hayley was the first transgender character in a British soap and Julie loved her time on the cobbles.
However, she's now moved on from the long-running show.
Julie told Entertainment Daily: "When I said I was going to leave 'Corrie', I knew the door wasn't going to be left open. Because Roy [Cropper] and Hayley would never split up. So unless David [Neilson] was ready to leave as well, which he wasn't, Hayley would have to die."
Meanwhile, Julie previously admitted to being shocked by the impact of Hayley's story.
The actress thinks her romance with Roy helped to change attitudes across the country.
She said: "Even now, I can’t quite believe the power of it.
"Literally within weeks, people were saying to me in the street: ‘When are you and Roy getting married?’ I’d be like: ‘We’re not allowed to – it’s against the law,’ and they’d be like: ‘Oh, never mind that!'
"I knew then that something was shifting. If you want to fight prejudice, you put somebody likeable in the living room and people can see beyond what makes them different to what makes them the same."
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