Claire King thinks the way ‘Coronation Street’ bosses handled her character Erica Holroyd’s miscarriage storyline was "a bit of a joke."
The 55-year-old actress portrayed the womanising blonde from 2014 until 2017 – during which time her alter ego accidentally fell pregnant with Nick Tilsley’s (Ben Price) baby before tragically losing it in the first trimester – and she has admitted she was horrified with the way producers handled the heartbreaking story.
Speaking to What’s on TV magazine, she said: "I literally was in for 12 episodes and they decided to bring her back and we had the pregnancy storyline, which was a bit of a joke. It could’ve been a big story. They did it with Kym Marsh afterwards which got a lot of praise, but they just left it at mine and finished it.
"I felt as though it was cut short a bit, particularly for older women, because it is a topical conversation to have. It could’ve been delved into a lot more. But anyway, I felt that they didn’t really know what to do with the character, so it was just ‘adios!’ "
Despite feeling bitter about the lack of storylines she was given during her time on the programme, Claire has admitted she can barely "remember" the soap.
She explained: "I can hardly remember it, quite honestly. She was a bit stuck on her own because she was a bit of a pinball in a big machine with no family, no ties.
"She literally had one friend, Liz [McDonald, Beverley Callard]; they’d run a bar together in Spain when Liz did her walkabout for a few years."
Meanwhile, Claire is set to reprise her role as mega bitch Kim Tate in ‘Emmerdale’ next week – more than 20 years after she left in the Dales in a helicopter.
The soap star will only appear in the show for a week but she has promised that her conniving character has plenty of tricks up her sleeve to wreak havoc.