Coronation Street star Lynn Kennedy, who plays Karen Rutherford on the soap, has confirmed her exit from the cobbles and has already filmed her final scenes.
On her Instagram Stories, the actress posted a mirror selfie wearing a long red ITV coat in her dressing room and captioned the image: "And just like that, Karen’s off. Bye @coronationstreet it’s been amazing!!”
Her character, Karen is the estranged older sister of Daisy Midgeley's (Charlotte Jordan) stalker Justin Rutherford (Andrew Still), who was sent to prison recently for the horrific acid attack he committed on Daisy's wedding day.
Karen first appeared in Weatherfield in March to warn Daisy about Justin's obsessive and violent behaviour after seeing her video about her brother's non-stop harassment.
After Karen's warning, Daisy baited Justin into attacking her in a bid to get him out of her life for good and he was arrested by police officer Craig Tinker (Colson Smith). However, he was later released on bail.
Karen later returned at the end of May and paid Daisy another visit before Justin's trial for the acid attack he carried out on her and Ryan Connor (Ryan Prescott). She apologised to Daisy for her brother's heinous crime and revealed that she wanted him to get sent down.
With Karen already winning the barmaid's trust, Daisy was oblivious to the fact that Karen had come up with a sadistic plan to secretly find ways to get her brother out of trouble.
After Ryan brought up Daisy's manipulative past of how she destroyed his relationship with Alya Nazir (Sair Khan) in 2021, Karen used this information to her advantage and handed it over to Justin's defence lawyer in an attempt to make him look innocent.
At his trial, Justin conjured up a lie that Ryan tried to attack him with the acid, but accidentally spilt it on himself. The jury saw through Justin's lies and he was found guilty of the attack.
Coronation Street airs hour-long episodes on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays at 8 pm on ITV — see our TV Guide for full listings. You can also catch up on episodes on ITVX.
