Coronation Street: Abi's fling with Imran to be exposed

Tough times ahead: Abi (Sally Carman) will reel as her fling with Imran becomes public knowledge. (Image credit: ITV)

Having suffered the devastating loss of son Seb last year, Coronation Street’s Abi Webster, née Franklin, deserves a much happier 2022.

Sadly, that’s not on the agenda for the Weatherfield favourite, as show boss Iain MacLeod has promised that “another really challenging year” lies ahead, as Abi’s secret one-night stand with Imran Habeeb comes to light.

Abi, you’ll recall, bedded Imran as she spiralled out of control in the wake of Corey Brent’s shock acquittal for Seb’s murder.

On New Year’s Eve, she floored the lawyer by revealing she thought she was pregnant with his baby.

Coronation Street Imran — Bombshell: Imran (Charlie de Melo) was left horrified when Abi revealed she may have a baby on board. (Image credit: ITV)

In Monday night’s double bill (3rd January), she revealed that a pregnancy test had, in fact, proved negative.

But Abi isn’t out of the woods just yet. As we all know, secrets in soapland never stay that way for long.

Reveals MacLeod, “Big, buried bombs are my favourite things in soap, and the way the bomb goes off in this story is entirely surprising. It starts off quite small, and turns into this gobsmacking cataclysm.

‘It’s not the huge, cinematic popcorn-size thing of super soap week - it's a bit more intimate - but it's just the shock of it. I think we'll make people fall off their chairs!”

He adds: “It will see Abi risk losing Kevin and Jack, and pitched into a legal battle where it’s a David and Goliath struggle for her to keep hold of her life as it ebbs away from her.

Kevin and Abi wedding Coronation Street — Happy family: Abi married Kevin (Michael Le Vell) in November and became stepmum to his son Jack (Kyran Bowes). (Image credit: ITV)

"It also threatens to destroy Imran and Toyah’s relationship, because, at present, Toyah thinks she knows the whole truth about what went on in the aftermath of Seb’s trial but, of course, she does not.

“It will test the boundaries of Toyah’s forgiveness to the max, and it will force Imran to take a long, hard look in the mirror and question whether he's the decent guy that he always felt he was.”

Coronation Street Toyah — In the dark: Toyah (Georgia Taylor) knows that Imran cheated on her, but thinks it was with a random stranger. (Image credit: ITV)

Kevin has always known that life with Abi would be eventful. Shortly before their marriage, he was rocked to learn that she had plotted to fatally shoot Corey, but ultimately decided that he still loved her.

Will his discovery that she cheated on him with their neighbour be too much to forgive and forget, or will he accept that she was in a bad place and give her yet another chance?

Coronation Street airs on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays at 7.30pm and 8.30pm on ITV - see our TV Guide for full listings. You can also catch up on episodes on ITV Hub now.

Alison Slade has over 20 years of experience as a TV journalist and has spent the vast majority of that time as Soap Editor of TV Times magazine. She is passionate about the ability of soaps to change the world by presenting important, issue-based stories about real people in a relatable way. There are few soap actors that she hasn’t interviewed over the years, and her expertise in the genre means she has been called upon as a judge numerous times for The British Soap Awards and the BAFTA TV Awards.

When she is not writing about soaps, watching soaps, or interviewing people who are in soaps, she loves going to the theatre, taking a long walk or pottering about at home, obsessing over Farrow and Ball paint.