Coronation Street star Cait Fitton reveals where Lauren’s been and her future after shock return

Lauren Bolton (Cait Fitton) made a shocking and unexpected return to Coronation Street in Monday’s (July 8) episode.

The young woman disappeared suddenly in February after telling Roy (David Neilson) that she wanted to leave Weatherfield to start her life again.

Days after though, friend Bobby (Jack Carroll) arrived at her flat and was suspicious. He raised his concerns to the police, who then launched a murder investigation after finding blood on the floor.

In the storyline that followed after, beloved character Roy was wrongly sent to prison for Lauren’s murder. In May, it was then confirmed solicitor Joel Deering (Calum Lill) was responsible for attacking her but thanks to tonight’s episode, we now know he didn’t kill her.

Lauren’s back! (Picture: ITV)

Nina (Mollie Gallagher) was determined to get Roy back into the café and enlisted the help of Evelyn (Maureen Lipman) and Shona (Julia Goulding) for her plan. It involved Shona pretending to be unwell so Roy wouldn’t have a choice but to don his apron and return to the café.

However, when Roy headed outside and was later confronted by a group of boys, his stresses started to increase and he began to feel unwell.

Thankfully, Carla (Alison King) was on hand to help but a little while later, things only got worse for Roy when he learnt his loved ones had lied about Shona being poorly.

The emotional ordeal, on top of everything that’s happened over the last few months, eventually became too much for Roy as he collapsed and experienced a heart attack.

That evening, as Roy began his recovery in hospital, Bethany (Lucy Fallon) had arrived at Sarah’s (Tina O’Brien) flat to take a look at some CCTV footage. A few weeks ago, Bethany discovered someone had been using her old credit card, and she had been given some CCTV clips of a pizza shop to see if she could identify who was using it.

Bethany grew frustrated when the footage just revealed a young woman standing at the counter in a coat but unbeknownst to them, that same woman had just made her way into the hospital to see Roy.

Moments later, the hood was removed and it was confirmed Lauren Bolton is alive after all.

‘Obviously when you go through any sort of trauma, us as human beings like to put it into the back of our minds and hope it goes away and distract ourselves, but it’s always there it’s never going to go away’, actress Cait Fitton explained to us.

‘With Lauren she thinks putting it behind and kind of moving on from it, she rushes that process and you cant rush it. Like grief you cant rush it, just got to go through it as and when it happens. Since she’s left Weatherfield she’s been running from hostel to hostel, sleeping homeless, not been able to pay the rent, booted out of different hostels. Obviously now there’s other precautions she’s got to think about.

She revealed: ‘Not been able to come back, she doesn’t know where Joel is, for all she knows Joel could still be in Weatherfield, he could be away but she doesn’t want to take that risk, it was nearer to a death experience so she doesn’t want to face that trauma again. It isn’t until she hears that Roy is in hospital, this has not just affected him mentally but now physically. She says right I’ve got to go back and I’ve got to put things right, no matter what the consequences I’ve got to do it.

‘Roy was so important to her, she’s scared of letting people down as well, she knows she’s going to get backlash off people because Roy’s adored by everybody on the street – she knows that’s something she’s going to have to face. She’s in survival mode, always has been, been brought up to be in that mode she’s a survivor herself. That contributes to it a lot.’

‘Mental!’, Cait said when asked about what it’s been like to keep this secret about Lauren for so long.

‘It was mad. So fun but it was mental, never thought would have to be doing that to get into work. Knew from very early on I was coming back which is such a fortunate position to be in in this industry because once you finish a job you don’t know what’s going to happen after that. So I knew I was coming back which was great.

‘I hope so’, she added, reflecting on her hopes for the audience’s reaction.

‘They probably will not like her at first because of what’s happened with Roy and I understand that because Roy is a lovely character people really adore him. But I hope when they know why she’s been away they’ll see that vulnerability and will understand.

‘Cant wait for it all to be out…surprise!’.