Coronation Street’s Helen Flanagan Says Alison King Had Her Back Over ‘Sexual’ Scenes At 16

Former Coronation Street star Helen Flanagan is reflecting on some of the more troublesome experiences she had during her time on the soap.

Helen joined Corrie as Rosie Webster when she was nine years old, eventually stepping away from the role when she was in her early 20s.

During a new interview with The Mirror, the two-time I’m A Celebrity campmate reflected on one storyline that she was part of when she was a teenager, which saw her character embarking on an affair with her teacher, John Stape.

“Was it morally right that I was expected to parade about in my knickers like some mad nymphomaniac when I was still just a teenager?” she questioned.

Helen went on to reveal that her co-star Alison King – who is still on the soap as Carla Connor – once “kicked off” behind the scenes about how “disgusting it was that they were sexualising me when I was a young girl”.

“I didn’t fully comprehend what she was talking about at the time,” Helen then admitted. “I do now. I get it.”

She continued: “I had to do kissing and bedroom scenes with a man a lot older than me. Obviously the actor [Graeme Hawley] was lovely, but I don’t think it would happen now.

“When you’re 16, you don’t really know what’s going on, and I was just happy to get the big storylines. But I had scenes as Rosie which didn’t always sit comfortably with me. I felt minging post-shoot.”

“Everything has changed now, which I’m glad about. They wouldn’t write it in quite the same way all these years later and since the Me Too movement […] back then you just got on with it.”

HuffPost UK has contacted Coronation Street for comment.

After 12 years playing Rosie, Helen left the cobbles in 2012, returning in 2017 for an additional year.

Coronation Street is currently airing a different storyline involving a teacher grooming a student, with the actors concerned, Lucas Hodgson-Wale and Beth Nixon, aged 17 and 25, respectively.