Maria is happy to play mistress
As her alter ego starts playing the role of mistress, Corrie’s Samia Longchambon tells us why Maria is putting up with playing second fiddle to Eva…
To say that Maria Connor hasn’t had much luck with men is putting it mildly. Her marriage to Liam ended in his tragic death – oh, and he was cheating on her with sister-in-law Carla at the time. Her next fella, Tony Gordon, was revealed as Liam’s killer; then there was the time she tried to settle down with gay best mate Marcus.
So, you’d think Maria would have learned a thing or two by now, but no – here she is agreeing to be secret lover Aidan’s mistress! And even actress Samia Longchambon, who plays her, is exasperated at her alter ego’s decision…
“I think Maria is crazy!” laughs the star, who married her former Dancing
On Ice partner Sylvain Longchambon in August last year. “If she were my friend, I would be giving Maria a good shake and telling her that it’s not going to end well. This romance clearly has trouble written all over it.”
It certainly has, not least thanks to the fact that Aidan can’t make up his mind between Maria and his long-term love, Eva. Poor Eva has done everything she can to support Maria, especially during her recent stint in prison. So, as well as being massively jealous that Eva gets to cuddle up with Aidan every night, Maria’s feeling like a total snake for doing the dirty on her ‘best mate’.
“Maria has this plan to ‘unfriend’ Eva,” grins Samia, who is mum to daughter Freya and son Yves in real life. “She can’t bear being so two-faced. She decides to start doing impressions of Eva and making fun of her laugh, and then she insults her sister Leanne! Eva goes mad and throws a cream cake in her face – which is not very nice.”
Eva has proved time and time again that she’s fiercely loyal, so it’s no wonder she goes into fight mode once Maria oversteps the mark. Mind you, given that Maria got a pie in the face for speaking out of turn about Leanne, can you imagine what would happen if Eva discovered her real sins? Samia reckons the pie scene was shocking enough…
“I didn’t know Cath [Tyldesley, who plays Eva] was going to go for it in the way that she did,” chuckles the actress. “Actually, I don’t think Cath herself knew! We literally did it in one take, and I don’t know how I didn’t laugh. I had cream all over my face.”
It looks as if Maria’s scheme to drive a wedge between her and Eva works like a charm. But given how lovely the kindly seamstress has been to her and son Liam, will Maria miss her?
“Maria has a plan to ‘unfriend’ Eva – she can’t bear being so two-faced!”
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“She won’t miss Eva’s friendship because she is so in love with Aidan,” explains Samia. “It’s always been Eva pushing that friendship, she and Maria are completely different. But Maria’s not doing this to be spiteful, it’s just that if she had to choose, it’d be Aidan over Eva every time. She really believes that she’ll get Aidan in the end.”
While Eva might be mystified by Maria’s antics, one person who has clocked what she’s up to is David. The recently widowed Platt isn’t a fan of Aidan, but he is there for Maria as she desperately needs someone to confide in.
“David is Maria’s best friend, and she trusts him,” says Samia. “There’s a lot of history between them, and David knows everything about her. I love working with Jack P Shepherd [aka David], it’s just ace. We’ve grown up together and have known each other since he was 12 and I was 17, so it’s easy to work with him.”
Samia has a lot of work coming up as the clandestine relationship between Maria and Aidan continues. Of course, most of Samia’s scenes are with
Shayne Ward, who plays love rat Aidan. But their real-life friendship started long before Coronation Street.
“I’ve known Shayne for a few years from Dancing On Ice,” shares Samia, who was a celebrity amateur on the show in the same series as Shayne. “It’s a bit weird having to kiss him because he’s my husband Sylvain’s mate! It’s fine, though, and it’s good fun working with Cath, too, because she’s so hilarious.”
There’s nothing funny about where this story is going, however, because either Eva, Maria or both women are going to get very hurt. So why on earth does Maria agree to be Aidan’s mistress?
“She thinks he is going to choose her over Eva,” sighs Samia. “Maria is a stronger person since prison, but she’s just in love with Aidan and blind to his faults. I think it’s a Connor thing, too, because Aidan is her husband Liam’s cousin, so they have that history that we didn’t see on screen but goes a long way back. For Maria, this is much more than just lust – she really loves Aidan!”