Sam Natasha Coronation Street
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Coronation Street: Jude Riordan pays tribute to on-screen mum Rachel Leskovac as his performance is hailed

Natasha returned to Weatherfield with Nick's son, Sam, last year

Coronation Street star Jude Riordan, who plays Sam Blakeman, has revealed he was in tears as his on-screen mum, Natasha, played by Rachel Leskovac, died.

Last week, Natasha was shot by drug lord, Harvey, who had escaped prison.

Harvey came to the cobbles seeking revenge on Sam’s stepmother, Leanne Battersby, who testified against him in court. However he ended up shooting Natasha, mistaking her for Leanne.

In last night’s scenes (Monday, October 25) Nick told Sam what happened to his mum and after her operation he took Sam to the hospital.

Natasha died (Credit: ITV)

They were told Natasha would need another surgery as her blood pressure was high.

Nick took Sam to see his mum before she went in for surgery and she said a tearful goodbye to her son.

Sam was adamant his mum would be okay. However when waiting for news, a doctor came out and broke the devastating news to Sam that his mother had died as they were unable to stop the internal bleeding.

Coronation Street: Jude Riordan pays tribute to Rachel

After the episode aired, 10-year-old Jude shared a tribute to Rachel on Twitter.

Sam Coronation Street
Jude has paid tribute to Rachel (Credit: ITV)

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Retweeting Rachel’s farewell video, Jude wrote: “The hardest thing I have had to film, my tag team has gone.

“I love @rachelleskovac1 all around the stars and back. Stick around and watch Sam try to come to terms with his massive loss. Reading all the amazing comments through my watery eyes, thank you all so much #Corrie.”

https://twitter.com/JudeRiordan/status/1452730337730105354

Fans were quick to praise Jude for his performance.

https://twitter.com/IndiaWilloughby/status/1452724855003140111

Rachel talks about saying goodbye to Jude

Rachel was asked if it was hard for her to say goodbye to Jude, as they had formed such a close bond.

She responded: “It was a really emotional day for both of us, because it was our last day of filming together. We’d got each other little gifts so we ended up cheering each other up in the car park after we’d finished.

Rachel revealed it was hard to say goodbye to her on-screen son (Credit: ITV)

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“He’s got a really special place in my heart, from the first time I FaceTimed him before I met him on set I just knew that we would get on really well and it’s been an absolute joy to film with him.

“I’m going to miss working with him, but we’ve said hopefully at some point in the future we’ll get to work together again.”

Want more spoilers from Coronation Street? Entertainment Daily has a dedicated Coronation Street spoilers section for you to get your fix before the latest episodes air.

Coronation Street usually airs on Mondays and Wednesdays 7.30pm and 8.30pm with an hour long episode at 7.30 on Fridays on ITV.

Did you watch tonight’s Coronation Street? Leave us a comment on our Facebook page @EntertainmentDailyFix and let us know what you think.


Charlotte Rodrigues
Soap Contributor
Charlotte Rodrigues joined Entertainment Daily in April 2018, as Audience Engagement Executive. A huge soap fan, Charlotte then became Senior Soap Writer, delivering the latest storylines and spoilers to our followers.