Coronation Street viewers saw Rowan Cunliffe discussing Willow, the CEO of The Institute, on Friday night amid a twist with Leanne Battersby and Amy Barlow on the ITV soap – but who is she?

Coronation Street viewers are sure they know the truth about mystery character Willow, and her real link to Weatherfield.

The new character was mentioned recently as being the CEO of The Institute, with leader Rowan Cunliffe targetting Weatherfield residents for their money. The ‘self-improvement’ organisation is a scam, and Rowan reeled in Leanne Battersby before targeting Amy Barlow.

But after an incident on Wednesday, Amy has now seen Rowan for who he is but has unfortunately lost £40,000 of her money. She’d been tricked into investing in the organisation and being a member, as Leanne encouraged her.

Leanne still hasn’t worked out it’s all a scam and she too has lost thousands of pounds. With Amy threatening to expose Rowan unless she gets her money back, the character manipulated Leanne in the latest episode.

Rowan put pressure on her to talk to Amy to call off the campaign against him and The Institute, telling her it’s her responsibility and that she needed to pledge her loyalty to them. It’s then that he brought up Willow, and how Willow had invested a lot of time and money into “changing Leanne’s life”.

Leanne was torn given her link to Amy, but Rowan didn’t care. This mention of Willow got viewers speculating the real plan, and whether she could be someone we know.

We have seen her already months ago via a zoom call, but at the time viewers were convinced it was AI and Willow was not the woman they were seeing on the screen. While it was questioned whether Rowan had made her up, recent scenes made people think she was real.

Now, fans think the person on the zoom was not the real Willow, and that Willow could be linked to Weatherfield. Is she a former character back for revenge?

One fan posted online: “Is Willow going to be a former resident? Kirsty or someone?” While Kirsty is dead, could a different former character be behind the group’s decision to target Weatherfield residents?