Coronation Street star Emrhys Cooper revealed that his parents found themselves in a cult that started off ‘wholesome’ but took a ‘sinister’ turn.
Recent scenes saw Leanne Battersby (Jane Danson) meeting the charming Rowan (Emrhys) from The Institute, following her stepson’s Simon Barlow’s court appearance for drink driving.
As he left, he flashed her a smile, and she found herself blushing.
According to Desperate Housewives star Emrhys his current storyline hits pretty close to home as his parents were involved in something similar.
‘One of the situations that happened that is similar to my storyline, without giving too much away. My parents did wind up in a cult, but kind of a wellness, fitness, more of a spiritual cult,’ he said.
‘It presented itself as kind of a work out, feel good, fitness mentally. Only as they got further and further in and gave more money it became more sinister. The cult tried to separate my parents by doing these rather sexual exercises with other people which my dad was a little alarmed by because he was having to grope this woman and my mum was having to do this thing with someone else.
He added: ‘So they kind of cottoned on that this exercise programme wasn’t all it was cracked up to be and my dad started talking about it and the main master, I guess, kicked my dad out and my mum was asked to leave shortly after that.’
Ben Price recently told us that as Rowan’s influence over Leanne grows, Nick Tilsley becomes uneasy about how she’s being drawn in by him.
‘Leanne is normally like, “I think that’s a load of s***” at first, and it’s probably Nick going “No, no, give it a chance, give it a chance.” But she’s not in this,’ he explained.
‘She’s fully invested. Nick is a bit like, “You’re more cynical, Leanne, than me. You’re not being very cynical about this man.” And I don’t get to see him. It almost becomes this man I’m not seeing and he’s taking her away to do the course and he’s taking her to Zooms in another room.’
