Coronation Street’s Stephanie Davis spills the beans on Courtney and Aadi

As Coronation Street‘s Courtney and Aadi take the next step by looking for a place together, actor Stephanie Davis talks about the pair’s whirlwind romance…

The Alahan household has been thrown into chaos since the reveal of Aadi (Adam Hussain) and Courtney’s (Stephanie Davis) affair. The wife of Dev’s (Jimmi Harkishin) business partner Darren (Ryan Early), Courtney immediately took a shine to Aadi after he was employed by Darren as her PA.

Dev was shocked when he found the pair in a passionate clinch in the bistro recently, and as Courtney later goaded Darren with the fact that she was having an affair with someone, Aadi couldn’t face the pressure anymore and outed himself as her secret lover.

Naturally, everything hit the fan following the revelation, with Courtney soon thrown out of her marital home with her credit cards cancelled. With nowhere else to go, Courtney has ended up staying with Aadi at No. 7, much to the frustration of Dev and Asha (Tanisha Gorey).

“I’ve loved it, those scenes are really funny,” Stephanie revealed to EverySoap and other media during a recent press event. “Courtney’s made herself at home straight away. Feet up on the couch, taking forever in the shower… Asha and everyone are getting a bit irritated with her, and Courtney’s oblivious to what’s she’s doing.”

“It’s been great living with such an iconic family. I’ve got quite a few funny scenes with Asha where I’m really winding her up and doing her head in, so it’s been brilliant to film.”

Whilst praising all of her new housemates, Stephanie has found a rapport with one in particular.

“I love working with Jimmi!” Stephanie enthuses. “Jimmi’s absolutely amazing. He’s just as obsessed as I am with making the scene the best it can be. Even when we’re at home going through the scenes, we’ll be calling each other with little ideas that we’ve got, trying to make it the best we can. It’s been an honour to work with Jimmi because he really is amazing, really talented.”

Aadi and Courtney have been very caught up in the throes of passion in their whirlwind romance, and as the subject of Courtney’s passionate kissing scenes come up, Stephanie cringes.

“I was watching it with [boyfriend] Joe and his family the other week and I was literally just hiding behind a pillow, like ‘Why have I done this?’” she laughs. “I wanted the ground to open and swallow me up! And his dad was like ‘Oh bloody hell!’”

Does she think that Courtney is still as into Aadi as she first was though?

“She does really care about Aadi. She’s not a total… I can’t say b*tch, but you know what I mean… she really is fond of him. But I think the cracks do start to show,” Stephanie admits. “Because she’s been so accustomed to a certain lifestyle with Darren, living the high life, and then it’s like ‘Wow, this is my reality now’”.

“She is fond of him, and as you’ll see the more it goes on, they do have a genuine, lovely little relationship together. It’s one of those where half of you is thinking ‘Oh no’, but the other half is thinking ‘Oh I actually I can see these two together, they’re quite cute ’. They’ve got some beautiful little scenes together coming up and it’s really endearing.”

Next week, with things continuing to be awkward in the household, Courtney puts the pressure on Aadi to try and find them somewhere else to live. As a besotted Aadi tells Courtney that he loves her, he gets straight onto finding somewhere.

Aadi is thrilled when Bernie (Jane Hazlegrove) reveals that the late Shelly Rossington’s (Natalie Amber) flat has come up for rent, but Dev is less than pleased at his partner for letting that slip.

Needless to say, the flat isn’t quite what Courtney had in mind, having been looking at possible properties herself!

“Yeah, she’s totally in denial,” Stephanie reveals. “She’s looking at these big posh flats in really beautiful areas, and Aadi’s trying to really politely, god help him, say ‘We can’t really get that’. But she’s just like ‘Ooh this has got a feature wall’ and is just oblivious to it, having been so used to living that lifestyle.”

“So when she sees the flat I think that’s just a big reality check for her. Definitely a bit of a shock to her system! She’s also gone through with it now so doesn’t want to lose face to Darren. She’s trying to be like ‘No, it’s great, I’m fine’, but is it really?”

Courtney puts a brave face on as the pair announce that they’re moving out, and even tells Aadi that she’s going to sell her rings to put towards the deposit. With the money left over, she wants to go out and celebrate at the bistro, which just so happens to be where husband Darren is attending a golf club event…

Deciding to use it as an opportunity to wind up her estranged husband, Courtney makes a show of passionately snogging Aadi in full view of Darren, whilst loudly talking about their new place together.

“Yeah, this is when the cracks are starting to show after seeing the flat,” Stephanie states. “I was saying to Adam when doing these scenes ‘I feel really bad for you!’. Aadi as a character will just do anything for Courtney. If she says the sky’s purple, the sky’s purple. And he falls for it hook line and sinker every time, every little excuse. She does turn up there on purpose as she knows Darren’s there, and she’s wanting to be all ‘Look at us we’re fine’ as she’s snogging the face off of Aadi to get a reaction. But it’s all bravado, and I think that’s what she’s done her whole life.”

As Aadi soon finds himself squared up to Darren, Dev can barely watch. Luckily, Bernie soon puts a stop to proceedings, but as they leave she warns Courtney that she knows what she’s up to—she’s clearly still in love with Darren and is using Aadi to make him jealous.

Is that the case though, does Courtney still miss Darren despite their toxic relationship?

“It’s a hard one for Courtney,” Stephanie admits. “I don’t think she really knows what true love is. She’s come from a bad council flat background and she’s never really had love, and doesn’t know how to be loved. She met Darren who has loads of money and she’s thinking ‘Well this is better than nothing, at least I’m getting to live this luxury lifestyle’. But it’s like having the money without the love, or not having the money and having someone who genuinely cares about you. She does miss Darren, she’s spent all this time with him, but is it more the lifestyle she misses?”

Though Courtney is clearly confused about her feelings, Stephanie does believe that Courtney is being sincere about her relationship with Aadi.

“Her feelings for Aadi are genuine, she does genuinely think the world of him and thinks he’s a beautiful person. But she’s just so toxic in her behaviours that she’s had for so long, that she automatically goes back into those character defects.”

“Darren has cheated on her before in the past, and part of it for Courtney is seeing how he likes it. She wants to get that reaction out of him. When we were filming those scenes and I saw his little face I was feeling so bad for him, he’s so lovely. But she is doing it for pure reaction, and that’s when Bernie and Dev are all ‘We’ve got your card marked, we can see what you’re trying to do’. I don’t think she’s even that aware of it.”

“I feel sorry for her. With Darren she puts on this big bravado, she’s in the suits, she’s a businesswoman and dolly bird on his arm,” Stephanie continues. “But with Aadi, Courtney can just be herself, she can be munching on a kebab in secret! She’s unapologetically herself and Aadi loves that about her. He loves her for who she really is. As the scenes progress I’ve got to show a really different side to Courtney, and I’ve really enjoyed doing those scenes. She’s like a lost little girl deep down, she ends up hurting those she loves, just causing destruction even though she genuinely doesn’t mean to.”

In the meantime, Darren quietly talks to Dev, and offers him £5000 to split up Courtney and Aadi.

When Dev returns home, he pulls out the cash and reveals to Courtney that it could be hers if she chucks Aadi. But will she be tempted to take the cash and run, or will she realise that this is Darren’s doing?

Whether she does or not, we’re sworn to secrecy, but Stephanie notes these scenes as being a highlight of her time so far on the show, and found this the ideal opportunity to introduce a little nickname for Dev…

“These were my favourite scenes to film, I absolutely loved these scenes with Jimmi. I can’t give too much away, but she has a feeling it’s Darren’s money, she knows that Dev isn’t quite up to that and is a bit of a softie really. And that’s when Courtney and Dev’s game of cat and mouse begins, and Courtney calls him ‘Devvie.’”

“I’ve started calling him Devvie all the time,” Stephanie laughs. “I put it in myself in the scripts, I just did it on one of the takes and thought I’m keeping this in now! So every time we’ve got scenes together I’m like ‘Y’alright Devvie?’ and it’s winding him up but he can’t say anything. It’s stuck now!”

“So they have that bit of a cat and mouse game and it’s like ‘What’s she going to do with the money, will she reveal it to Aadi and say this is what your dad’s done, or will she twist it and use it against him?’ Although Courtney might play dumb she’s very intelligent and always one step ahead.”

If Courtney does decide to split up with Aadi, does Stephanie see her character going back to Darren, or is there someone else on the street that could catch her eye?

“I would honestly laugh if she ended up with Dev,” she reveals. “What a storyline that would be. Darren was a really toxic relationship, he’s already cheated on her loads, the trust has gone and it’s more about money. With Aadi, he’s too young, he can’t give her the life she’s accustomed to as well, so will she go for the dad whose got both? (laughs) Me and Jimmi was laughing thinking it would be so funny if you and me ended up together.”

Stephanie sent many tongues wagging amongst viewers when she posted a photo on Instagram recently, posing behind the bar at the Rovers Return, as they wondered whether Courtney would be taking up a new career.

“I’d love to see her stick around,” Stephanie says when asked if she could see Courtney settling into life on the street. “She’s one of those characters who could be involved with anything, I think she’d love a good gossip. I know a lot of fans of the show think I’m the new barmaid at the Rovers and I was like ‘You know what, I’d love to do that in the future’. I could see her being a really good landlady as she’s that type of character, getting involved with everyone’s business. But we’ll have to wait and see what happens.”

But who does Stephanie see Courtney befriending on the street?

“In my head, I can see her like a young Carla type, looking up to Carla for guidance,” she reveals. “I think Carla could probably see a little bit of Courtney in herself when she was younger.”

And are there any particular characters that she would love for Courtney to share scenes with…?

“It’s so hard, how do you pick out of all of them,” Stephanie ponders “I could be here all day listing off the names. I’ve got in my head that I’d love to see Courtney have some scenes with Audrey, I don’t know why but I just see her looking up to her… Audrey putting her in her place a little bit, telling her about life giving her words of wisdom!”

“I’d love to work with the Platts, they’re such an iconic family and I’ve always loved them,” she adds. “And Maureen Lipman, she’s just an absolute icon, I’d love to do scenes with her.“