“She’s made massive mistakes.”
Coronation Street star Jane Hazlegrove has spoken about her character Bernie Winter’s big secret.
In scenes airing on the ITV soap next week, the arrival of Paul and Gemma’s dad Denny will stir up memories, with an emotional Bernie revealing to Dev that she had another son named Zodiac, who was taken into care as a child.
“He’s so wonderful with her, and he will allow her behaviour to a degree, even when it is wrong,” Hazlegrove said of Bernie’s decision to confide in Dev.
“When she’s made massive mistakes, he’s quite happy to do that and to be the voice of reason. But he’s not immediately empathetic about this, and she has to explain why she gave her child up.”
Explaining why Bernie made the difficult decision to put Zodiac into care, she continued: “Her and Denny were having a really bad time and they decided they were going to split up. She went out and got off her face and a couple of months later she’s pregnant, and it’s quite apparent that is not Denny’s.
“She thought she was going to be able to cope once the baby arrived but she already had the twins, Denny is no longer around and she has got no one. She was really, really struggling but also still quite selfish, I think.
“There’s a certain selflessness with doing what she did, thinking that this child would be better off with people who could give him a better life. But she still feels everyone would judge her.”
After confiding in Dev, Bernie insists that she’s going to track down Zodiac, whose name was changed to Christopher Green after he was adopted.
“It’s sort of typical Bernie, isn’t it? Let’s just go knock on the door of everyone who’s called Christopher Green of around the right age. But it is something she really has to do and nothing is going to stop her now,” said Hazlegrove.
“Of course, people are going to say he’s a replacement for Paul, which just breaks her heart because she hadn’t thought about that at all. That was not the intention. She just wants the family together,” she added.
Hazlewood concluded by saying that if Bernie doesn’t find her son, she’ll be “sad”, but if she does, it could “go one of two ways”.
“So you know, she’s adding an extra layer to an already difficult time for the family – typical Bernie creating more problems.”
