breaks

Coronation Street’s Lou Michaelis actress Farrel Hegarty has addressed her looming exit from the ITV soap, discussing taking on the role for the first time after fans were confused

One Coronation Street star has cleared up some mixed reports on their looming exit from the ITV soap just months after joining.

Viewers were stunned to find out weeks ago that Lou Michaelis actress Farrel Hegarty was leaving the role after less than a year. Lou will bow out this summer alongside onscreen husband Mick Michaelis, and now the actress playing Lou has spilled “it’s all about to implode” in a hint-filled bombshell about her departure.

After reports regarding a “shocking exit” left fans baffled by the abrupt news of the departures, it was confirmed by ITV that the exits had been planned for months. It was stated that Farrel and her co-star Joe Layton, who plays Mick, both knew they would only be on the show for a specific storyline and for a stint from the moment they landed the roles.

Now, actress Farrel has vaguely discussed the exit for the first time to The Mirror and other press. She teased what was ahead, while also confirming the fact that she did know from the start she would be leaving after a matter of months, with an exit always on the cards despite some reports.

She explained of why she took on the short-term role, knowing she would only be there for a specific amount of time: “I just think she really appealed to me because she’s the sort of person who’s never had it easy.

READ MORE: Coronation Street character found dead in heartbreaking twist as fans left ‘furious’

“She’s built up a lot of coping mechanisms, where she’s presenting a hard and feisty character with her walls up, and all she’s ever known is these fiery relationships. And probably fiery relationships with a lot of people in her life, which is what makes a character like that so interesting.

“Because she’s a force and irrational. I read scripts and I go, ‘Oh God! What’s she doing now? What’s she saying now?’. Because it’s not a way that I would behave, and because of that, it’s so much fun to play. It’s that desperation to protect that inner circle and because of that, she makes a mess of things. But a character like that is so fun to play, because there’s never a dull moment.”

Farrel also addressed what’s ahead and what leads to her exit from the show. She teased: “There’s a lot more to come from these two, I’m afraid to say. I think there’s a lot happening. It’s all about to come to a head, it’s all about to implode.”

On the viewer reaction to her character, she confessed she wouldn’t get along with her soap alter-ego. She said: “I don’t know. She’s not a girl next door vibe. I wouldn’t want to be best mates with her. So she’s going to cause a mix of reactions.

“She’s the sort of person who puts her family first and unfortunately that’s the type of character who’s going to burn bridges along the way. I met some lovely fans outside the gates who’ve been really excited to see new faces in there, especially new faces who’ve come in all guns blazing. That’s been nice, to speak with them.”

Farrel also revealed how she felt playing the troublesome character. She said: “It’s great to play that character. I’m so lucky to play a role like this. To be honest, I tend not to get cast as shrinking violets if I’m honest! I must have one of those faces! But she’s brilliant to play.

“Some of her behaviour really makes me wince sometimes because I think she can be quite hot-headed, irrational and she speaks before she thinks and she protects her own, which gets her into trouble. She does have a massive heart for the people she loves and she has good qualities in that. But I think, to a lot of people it’s loud, feisty and quite unreasonable at times.”

Coronation Street airs Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays at 8pm on ITV1 and ITV X. * Follow Mirror Celebs and TV on TikTok , Snapchat , Instagram , Twitter , Facebook , YouTube and Threads .

A BRITISH-made stealth jet has broken the world record for the longest continuous flight, spending 67 days in the sky.

That’s the equivalent of 1,608 hours – enough time to watch every episode of Top Gear, Love Island and Strictly Come Dancing that has ever aired in the UK.

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In fact, it’s more than enough time, with Top Gear boasting 518 hours’ worth of content across 33 seasons, Love Island’s 390 hours and Strictly with a whopping 635 hours.

A total of 1,543 hours.

The unmanned plane, known as Aalto Zephyr, flew for more than two months from Kenya to Australia before being plunged into the Indian Ocean.

The flight beat a record held by two American pilots for over 50 years.

In 1959, Robert Timm and John Cook flew a Cessna Skyhawk continuously for 64 days and 22 hours in Nevada.

That record has now been bested by a British jet, built by Airbus at its facilities in Farnborough, Hampshire.

British defence company QinetiQ originally developed the project, before selling it off to Airbus in 2013.

The Zephyr is a drone-like aircraft with a wingspan of 85ft, and weighs just 75kg.

It has been hailed for its abilities for near ‘endless flight’, with it using solar power to charge its propellers during the day.

At night, the craft glides and loses altitude slightly as the batteries drain, until the morning sun recharges them.

The Zephyr can operate as a spy plane, carrying powerful cameras and sensors for Earth surveillance.

But it can also provide 4G and 5G communications, acting like a mobile mast in the sky. 

It is designed to fly above 60,000ft, making it well suited for delivering communications to remote areas.

The aircraft’s longest previous mission was a 64-day flight in 2022.

“With this new world-record flight, we have pushed the boundaries again for the burgeoning HAPS industry and aviation globally with a solar-powered, stratospheric aircraft,” Aalto CEO Hughes Boulnois said in a statement.

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April 30 (UPI) — Vice President JD Vance on Wednesday night broke a 49-49 tie in the U.S. Senate to kill a bipartisan resolution to end President Donald Trump‘s tariffs.

The resolution came hours after Trump acknowledged during a Cabinet meeting there will be shortages and rising prices, saying: “Maybe the children will have two dolls instead of 30 dolls, and maybe the two dolls will cost a couple of bucks more than they would normally. But we’re not talking about something that we have to go out of our way. They have ships that are loaded up with stuff, much of which — not all of it — but much of which we don’t need.”

Two senators who would have voted for the resolution, Republican Mitch McConnell of Kentucky and Democratic Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse, of Rhode Island, were absent.

Whitehouse was traveling to South Korea and McConnell was ill, The Hill reported.

Voting with all 46 Democrats were Republicans Susan Collins of Maine, Lisa Murkowski of Alaska and Rand Paul of Kentucky. The approved motion tabled the resolution.

Earlier Wednesday, the Senate rejected a resolution 49-49 to block the president’s global tariffs by revoking his emergency order because it needed more than 50% for passage. A baseline tariff of 10% has been imposed on most treading partners with reciprocal tariffs paused until July 9.

The tariff plans were announced on April 2, which Trump called “Liberation Day.” China has been slapped with a 145% tariffs though electronics were later exempted and are at 20%.

Senate Majority Leader John Thune, of South Dakota, then moved to ensure that tariff opponents couldn’t bring the resolution back up for consideration. Vance broke the tie.

Senate Republican leaders had dismissed the importance of Wednesday’s vote.

“I think the broad majorities of Republicans are giving the administration … some space to figure out if they can get some good deals,” Thune said. “We’re awaiting the results of that. I wouldn’t attach too much weight to it.”

Democratic Sen. Tim Kaine, of Virginia, who co-sponsored the resolution, said: “They are so dead set on this tariff idiocy that is wrecking the economy that they’re going to bring the vice president over to completely own it. Great, let them do it. Let them do it. The American public needs to know who to blame for this. And they are showing everybody tonight who is to blame for this.”

The measure wasn’t going anywhere after a Senate vote with unlikely House passage and a veto by Trump.

“Tariffs are taxes, plain and simple,” Paul said before the vote. “Tariffs don’t punish foreign governments, they punish American families. When we tax imports, we raise the price of everything, from groceries, to smartphones to washing machines to just about every conceivable product.”

Trump said he understands how Americans may be unhappy with the tariffs during an interview on NewsNation.

“You have to be able to dodge and move and be flexible,” Trump said.

He noted that he scrapped auto tariffs after listening to automaker leaders opposed to them.

“And now, if I didn’t do that, it would have been very, very tough for them, and so what I am is flexible, and if I didn’t do that, it would be very tough for these companies, and these companies,” he said. “It’s a transition period.”

Trump said on NewsNation that there are potential deals with three Asian nations. The scheduled reciprocal ones were India 27%, South Korea 25%, and Japan 24%.

“It can wait two weeks,” Trump said.

Despite Americans’ opposition to tariffs in polls, Trump said: “I’m an honest guy, and I, we have to save the country.”

He said Republicans could face troubles during the midterms in 2026.

“I’ve got to explain it,” Trump said. “I’ve got to have people that can explain it, but I can tell you that right now, we have over 100, 100 countries that are calling us like morning, noon and night, dying to make a deal. We’re in a great position of strength. We’ll make great deals.”

The U.S. gross national product contracted at 0.3%, according to data released Wednesday, the worst quarter since 2022.

A recession is defined as consecutive quarters of negative GDP.

April 30 (UPI) — Vice President JD Vance on Wednesday night broke a 49-49 tie in the U.S. Senate to kill a bipartisan resolution to end President Donald Trump‘s tariffs.

Two senators who would have voted for the resolution, Republican Mitch McConnell of Kentucky and Democratic Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse, of Rhode Island, were absent.

Whitehouse was traveling to South Korea and McConnell was ill, The Hill reported.

Voting with all 46 Democrats were Republicans Susan Collins of Maine, Lisa Murkowski of Alaska and Rand Paul of Kentucky. The approved motion tabled the resolution.

Earlier Wednesday, the Senate rejected a resolution 49-49 to block the president’s global tariffs by revoking his emergency order because it needed more than 50% for passage. A baseline tariff of 10% has been imposed on most treading partners with reciprocal tariffs paused until July 9.

The tariff plans were announced on April 2, which Trump called “Liberation Day.” China has been slapped with a 145% tariffs though electronics were later exempted and are at 20%.

Senate Majority Leader John Thune, of South Dakota, then moved to ensure that tariff opponents couldn’t bring the resolution back up for consideration. Vance broke the tie.

Senate Republican leaders had dismissed the importance of Wednesday’s vote.

“I think the broad majorities of Republicans are giving the administration … some space to figure out if they can get some good deals,” Thune said. “We’re awaiting the results of that. I wouldn’t attach too much weight to it.”

Democratic Sen. Tim Kaine, of Virginia, who co-sponsored the resolution, said: “They are so dead set on this tariff idiocy that is wrecking the economy that they’re going to bring the vice president over to completely own it. Great, let them do it. Let them do it. The American public needs to know who to blame for this. And they are showing everybody tonight who is to blame for this.”

The measure wasn’t going anywhere after a Senate vote with unlikely House passage and a veto by Trump.

“Tariffs are taxes, plain and simple,” Paul said before the vote. “Tariffs don’t punish foreign governments, they punish American families. When we tax imports, we raise the price of everything, from groceries, to smartphones to washing machines to just about every conceivable product.”

Trump said he understands how Americans may be unhappy with the tariffs during an interview on NewsNation.

“You have to be able to dodge and move and be flexible,” Trump said.

He noted that he scrapped auto tariffs after listening to automaker leaders opposed to them.

“And now, if I didn’t do that, it would have been very, very tough for them, and so what I am is flexible, and if I didn’t do that, it would be very tough for these companies, and these companies,” he said. “It’s a transition period.”

Despite Americans’ opposition to tariffs in polls, Trump said: “I’m an honest guy, and I, we have to save the country.”

He said Republicans could face troubles during the midterms in 2026.

“I’ve got to explain it,” Trump said. “I’ve got to have people that can explain it, but I can tell you that right now, we have over 100, 100 countries that are calling us like morning, noon and night, dying to make a deal. We’re in a great position of strength. We’ll make great deals.”

JUDD TRUMP has set a world record mark of centuries in a single season.

The Juddernaut, 35, banked £100,000 for reaching a ton of tons in 2024-25 during his second-round win over Shaun Murphy.

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And in the opening half an hour of his third and final session with Luca Brecel in the quarter-finals of the World Championship, the world No.1 notched back-to-back scores of 115 and 116.

It means he has 104 centuries for this campaign and nobody has performed better than that in the sport’s long history.

Australian cueist Neil Robertson set a tally of 103 in 2013-14 but that has now been overtaken in the record books.

However, Dennis Taylor got it wrong when Trump sank the final green, saying on commentary he had “103 centuries for one season” – which was one short.

And this had to be clarified later on by the unflappable presenter Hazel Irvine.

There were no celebrations or punches in the air by Trump and it was far removed from the standing ovation he received when he got the century of centuries on Sunday night – and for which he picked up that mega bonus.

Trump has 11 centuries in three matches and is eying up the Crucible record.

Stephen Hendry, 56, lost in a final-frame decider in the 2002 final to Peter Ebdon but during that run he had 16 centuries on his scorecard.

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Mark Williams, 40, equalled that mark in 2022 when he made the semi-finals where he lost 17-16 to Trump.-

Rajasthan Royals’ schoolboy prodigy Vaibhav Suryavanshi becomes youngest T20 centurion after scoring a stunning 35-ball 100 against Gujarat Titans in the IPL.

Fourteen-year-old Vaibhav Suryavanshi became the youngest centurion in men’s Twenty20 cricket as he guided Rajasthan Royals to an eight-wicket victory over the Gujarat Titans in an Indian Premier League match in Jaipur.

Suryavanshi doled out severe punishment to Gujarat’s bowling attack on Monday, hitting 11 sixes and seven fours in his 101 off 38 balls, as the hosts chased down a 209-run target in 15.5 overs.

The left-hander reached his 100 in 35 balls to register the second-fastest century in IPL history, while combining with Yashasvi Jaiswal in a 166-run opening partnership.

“It is a very good feeling. It’s my first hundred in the IPL and it’s my third innings. The result has shown here after the practice before the tournament,” the player of the match, Suryavanshi, said.

“I just see the ball and play. It has been a dream to get a 100 in the IPL, and today, it materialised. There is no fear. I don’t think much, I just focus on playing.”

Suryavanshi’s century was also the quickest by an Indian in the IPL, bettering Yusuf Pathan’s 37-ball effort for Rajasthan against the Mumbai Indians in 2010.

“Many congratulations to young Vaibhav Suryavanshi for breaking my record of the fastest IPL hundred by an Indian,” Pathan wrote on social media.

“Even more special to see it happen while playing for Rajasthan Royals, just like I did.”

Suryavanshi grabbed headlines when he became the youngest player to earn a contract in the lucrative IPL at the age of 13, before making his debut this month and announcing himself in style with a six off the first ball he faced.

He played in the domestic Ranji Trophy red-ball competition aged 12 last year and has represented India’s Under-19 side against Australia, scoring a 58-ball century.

Suryavanshi also made a triple hundred in a local tournament in his home state of Bihar.

Rajasthan are eighth in the IPL standings, with the win over Gujarat snapping a five-game losing run for the 2008 champions.

Lorraine Kelly was on hand to support her ITV show guest Adele Roberts after she broke down in tears on Monday’s show.

Emotions were high during the latest episode of ITV’s Lorraine.

The touching moment unfolded after the presenter chatted with ex-BBC Radio One presenter Adele Roberts about her recent London Marathon success.

As their conversation wrapped up, the Scottish host had a heartfelt surprise in store for the 46 year-old star

Lorraine announced: “Everybody is so so proud of you and we’ve got a wee message for you, it’s from your stoma nurse Elaine.”

Adele was visibly moved as a video from her nurse played on-screen, with Elaine expressing: “You have inspired so many people and patients with stoma’s throughout.

“You have been an absolute godsend, you have been a person, you know, that others aim to aspire to.

“What a great accomplishment, and thank you for carrying us along on that journey with you.”

Overwhelmed by the gesture, Adele tearfully thanked Lorraine, apologising for her emotional response, reports the Daily Record.

Lorraine comforted her, saying: “Aw, that’s gorgeous, I know it’s very- no you’re fine. I get it because the people that help you, that helped you to get back to be you again are so important. Sometimes, we forget that behind you, there’s a team.”

Adele didn’t hesitate to commend her nurse, telling Lorraine that without Elaine and the NHS, her achievements wouldn’t have been possible.

During her conversation on Lorraine’s show, she gave a nod to the host’s No Butts campaign, gratefully saying: “Without you, what you’ve done with no butts, thank you. It saved me.”

Yet there was more in store for Adele as the Scottish presenter had another surprise up her sleeve.

A representative from Guinness World Records appeared on set with an impressive accolade for Adele.

She announced: “Adele, you’re a shining inspiration to all of us, especially those with an impairment. We’re very proud to monitor this type of record title.

“We’ve been tracking you since the beginning of your journey and literally yesterday, we saw you across the finish line. Adele, you’re officially amazing.”

Overjoyed with the record, Adele listened as Lorraine informed their audience that she now holds the record for fastest female marathon time across all major global races with a stoma.

Lorraine expressed her pride, remarking: “We’re all so proud of you, we really are, it’s just wonderful. It’s brilliant. But, for goodness, sake just have a rest! You’re in pain, have a wee holiday. Just sit down, watch the telly with your feet up, please!”

For those concerned about bowel cancer, symptoms and signs are available on Lorraine’s website.

Lorraine is available to watch on ITVX.