Coronation Street star shares link to Maria's trolling story

Coronation Street star Samia Longchambon has opened up on having been on the receiving end of online abuse.

Her character on the soap, local councillor Maria Connor, has recently been targeted by online trolls, and upcoming scenes will see Maria devastated to discover that she's been made to look like she's in a porn film after a deep fake video starts circulating on the internet.

Speaking about her own experiences of trolling, Longchambon shared that while she's never received death threats like Maria does in the soap, she has been on the receiving on end of trolling and added it's been "really upsetting".

gary windass, maria connor, coronation street

ITV

"Not to the extent, thank God, of death threats. I've never had them. But yeah, I've certainly had trolls and to the point where it's been really upsetting," the actress recently told Digital Spy and other media.

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"It's not nice to read. As much as people say, 'Don't read it', it's almost like picking a scab. You know you shouldn't. But at the same time, there's a bit of you that just wants to know what other people are reading about what other people are saying about you.

"God, it's really hurtful. It's horrible. I can see why, for a lot of people, it ends up affecting their mental health. Over the years, it's had an effect on me, definitely."

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She continued: "It really knocks your confidence because even if you get 99 nice comments, you only remember that one awful comment and think 'that's what I must look like', or 'that's what I must be like'.

"What I've realised is they'd never say that to your face in public. But they hide behind the keyboard and think that that's okay. And it's really not."

Longchambon also explained she was "really pleased" to see this particular issue being covered in soaps and added that she is "really really glad" that her character is exploring this storyline, saying she believes she can bring a lot of her own experience to the plot.

"I think it's a huge huge issue at the moment with the rise in popularity of social media over the last few years," Longchambon noted.

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"I'm really, really pleased they're covering it because negativity on social media, like I said, you know has a huge effect on your life.

"I'm really really glad that I'm able to do it because I feel like I've had a lot of experience over the years, over the last decade with Twitter and Instagram. I have experience of trolls.

"I think if you dig hard enough, you'll always find someone who doesn't like you or wants to tear you down. And it's horrible," she continued.

"I've let it get me a lot over the years, to the point where sometimes you're like, 'I don't want to go out today' or you'll go to post something on social media and then second guess yourself and think, 'I'm not gonna post that because they might think that I'm showing off or I've got an opinion about that, or it's going to upset someone'.

"So you have to kind of really edit yourself a lot to avoid the trolls a lot of the time. So Maria going through it, I think, hopefully, it'll be relatable to a lot of people."

Coronation Street airs on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays at 8pm on ITV and streams on the ITV Hub.