Coronation Street star Farrel Hegarty has shared for the first time that she was previously married to a man before coming out as gay. The actress, who played Lou Michaelis in the ITV soap, revealed that she was married and divorced around four years ago.
Opening up to Attitude Magazine, Hegarty said: "God, I’ve never said this before, I was with a guy for a long time. I ended up marrying him, and then I quickly got divorced.
"And then it was only after that where I was like, 'Okay, well, who do I wanna date? Men and women?' And then the men just never happened for me again. And that was, like, four years, four and a half years ago."
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Explaining how she feels about talking about her sexuality, the actress continued: "So it's not that long ago, and so for me, I’ve kind of, like, stepped back in … If I feel like I’ve, like, came out, kind of half went back in again, and I’ve come out again.
"So for me, the queer content thing, if I’m being honest, I'm getting raw now, is, like, that I don’t know if I’m worthy of it yet."It’s only when I’ve looked at myself a bit, I’m like, ‘Why am I not, why am I a bit nervous about putting that out there?’
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"And I’m like, ‘Oh’, I described it as, like, can you, have you got a place at the table yet?"
Hegarty first appeared as Lou on the cobbles in 2025 as part of a 'neighbours from hell' storyline that eventually led to the character and her husband, Mick, being sent to prison.
Lou then made her return earlier this year after Debbie Webster was sent to prison, where she encountered Lou and the pair became unlikely friends.
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Hegarty made her second exit from the soap in April following Debbie's release from prison. Following Lou's exit, Sue Devaney, who plays Debbie, told Digital Spy that she would love to see the character make a return.
"I think there should be a scene where Debbie goes to see Lou in prison and takes the children with her," she said. "I think there's a real friendship there. It's one that you weren't expecting to see, which is lovely.
"And Farrel's beautiful – she's a gorgeous human being and wonderful to work with. We just had such fun doing those scenes, so yeah, I think Lou should come out of prison at some point."
Coronation Street airs on weeknights at 8.30pm on ITV1 and streams on ITVX.
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