Summer Spellman says goodbye to the cobbles in this evening’s episode of Coronation Street, heading off on an adventure to spend time at a university in Boston in America.
At first Summer didn’t want to take up the opportunity of studying abroad. She was worried about going abroad while stepdad Paul’s motor neurone disease was worsening.
But finally, she decided to go ahead and tonight she said goodbye to her three dads and waved farewell to the cobbles – for now at least.
Summer will be back, but in the meantime, we thought we’d take a look back over her best bits!
Summer’s arrival
Summer has been on Coronation Street since 2017, when she was 12 years old. She was the daughter of an old flame of Billy Mayhew’s – Drew Spellman. Drew tracked Billy down when he was dying, to ask him to look after his daughter. At first Billy said no because his boyfriend Todd didn’t want to be a dad. But Billy changed his mind.
He eventually had to battle Drew’s parents for custody of Summer, helped by Summer telling her grandmother she wanted to live with Billy.
It wasn’t all plain sailing. Summer was left to fend for herself when Billy lapsed back into addiction. She lived with Eileen Grimshaw – and her partner at the time Pat Phelan – for a while. She also almost went on the run with Todd, though he changed his mind and left her behind.
Summer’s diabetes
As Summer grew older she seemed settled and happy. But the stress of school soon saw her develop an eating disorder. And Summer became more stressed when she was also diagnosed with diabetes.
Summer struggled to cope with her diagnosis and even began abusing her insulin in an attempt to lose weight. But it backfired when she became ill during an exam.
Exam worries
In fact, Summer also didn’t cope well with her exams! She wanted to go to Oxford and even had tuition from Daniel Osbourne (something that’s coming back to bite Daniel now he’s a suspect in Lauren’s murder case).
Summer was so concerned about achieving the good results she needed to get into Oxford that she ended up cheating in her A Levels. She was found out – of course – and thought Aadi Alahan initially took the blame for her, Summer was disqualified and had to resit.
She’s now put all that behind her and she’s enjoying university life.
Summer’s pregnancy
Summer’s boyfriend Aaron Sandford seemed almost too good to be true. He was also diabetic and the pair met at a support group. He had issues of his own with his alcoholic father, but he was supportive and kind, and he really loved Summer.
But when Summer got pregnant, things went wrong.
Summer agreed to give her baby to creepy newcomers Esther and Mike for the £10,000 she and Aaron needed to pay for his dad’s rehab.
Obviously things did not work out – Summer had a miscarriage, but lied about it, pretending she was still pregnant.
When Mike and Esther found out, they agreed to forget the debt, on condition that Summer became their surrogate. Clearly that wasn’t a great plan – Summer’s family and friends tried to talk her out of it, but eventually they were proved right when Mike kidnapped Summer and held her hostage!
Aaron’s dark side
Summer was devastated when boyfriend Aaron – who she’d split from but still had feelings for – raped her best friend Amy Barlow.
Amy was relieved when Summer believed her and it was all over between Summer and Aaron.
Summer on the move
Summer’s been coping well with stepdad Paul’s diagnosis, though clearly she’s devastated at the thought of losing him and she was very upset to find out he plans to take his own life.
Now she’s made him promise to tell her when his time is up so she can make it home in time..
Will Summer return to Coronation Street?
ED! can confirm Summer will be back on the cobbles. But whether she makes it back in time to see Paul before he dies, we don’t know. But let’s hope she does!
Who plays Summer Spellman?
Summer was initially played by actress Matilda Freeman. She’s still acting and is currently appearing in Passenger.
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Matilda left the role and was replaced by Harriet Bibby, who currently plays Summer. Harriet is 25 – so a bit older than her alter ego.
Harriet’s making the most of her time away from Weatherfield and recently posed photos from a trip to Iceland on social media!
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Read more: Complete Coronation Street cast list 2024 – meet them all here!
Coronation Street usually airs on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays at 8pm on ITV.
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