Coronation Street icon Julie Hesmondhalgh revealed her beloved character Hayley Cropper was introduced as part of a joke storyline.

And we’re just as shocked as you are!

Hayley made her first appearance on the cobbles in 1998, eventually marrying Roy Cropper (David Neilson) in 2010.

In 2013, the character was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer. When treatment failed, Hayley decided to end her life on her terms, dying in 2014 in Roy’s arms.

Speaking on a soap panel at the Edinburgh TV Festival on Wednesday (January 21) Julie, 54, shared that her character was only meant to appear as a joke.

‘The casting director took me and said this was the deal with the character. She was going to be trans … [but] I didn’t know until later was that it was actually just going to be a joke storyline,’ she explained.

‘Roy had sort of embedded himself in the show as a popular – if slightly strange character – and he was going to have a series of disastrous dates, of which Hayley was the first.

‘The punchline of this story was that she would take him for dinner and say ‘I’m trans,’” after which Roy would consider the date to be a disaster and “disappear into the distance.’

‘I think it would have been really difficult for a trans actor to have played that part in 1997,’ Julie previously admitted.

‘It’s very difficult for trans people as we know, but back then, the press was just absolutely awful about those issues and there was a long way to go before trans people were accepted and celebrated in the way I think they should be.’

Reflecting on the progress that has been made since making her debut in Weatherfield, Julie continued: ‘As a cis-gender person, I wouldn’t be able to play that part now.

‘It’s good that I left when I did because I think it would have been a little out of step of the times for me to be playing that part now.

‘There are so many amazing trans actors who are out there doing it now.’

Julie added: ‘I’m very proud of my tiny little part in the story of trans history and trans rights.’