Leanne Battersby

Leanne Anika Battersby (previously Tilsley and Barlow) is the daughter of Les Battersby and Stella Price and mother of Oliver Battersby.

Leanne was brought up by Les and her stepmother Janice, along with her stepsister Toyah. The Battersbys moved into 5 Coronation Street in 1997. In 1998, the troublesome teen eloped with Nick Tilsley in Scotland, horrifying both of their families. The marriage fell apart when Nick forced Leanne to have an abortion, and afterwards Leanne's life spiralled out of control. Following a drug addiction, Leanne moved away in 2000 to escape from gangster Jez Quigley.

Leanne returned in 2004 and another unsettled period followed including an affair with her boyfriend Jamie's father Danny, prostitution, and burning down her restaurant Valandro's in order to collect the insurance payout. It wasn't until she started a relationship with Peter Barlow in 2008 and became mother to his son five-year-old son Simon that she changed into a more responsible adult.

When Peter was seriously injured following a tram crash, Leanne married him in hospital. They had a wobble when Peter discovered that Leanne had cheated on him with Nick, but when Peter's affair with Carla Connor exposed his hypocrisy, Leanne divorced him and was given custody of Simon. Re-marriage to Nick followed in 2013, with Leanne helping to manage Nick's Bistro, however when Nick was involved in a car crash and left with brain damage, he experienced violent outbursts which strained their marriage to the point where they were forced to separate.

In 2016, Leanne had a one-night stand with Steve McDonald and fell pregnant with his baby. Leanne was happy to be a mother, and gave birth to Oliver in 2017. By now, Leanne had the support of her family, as Toyah had returned to the area after a long absence, and she had finally met her mother Stella in 2011 and her half-sister Eva Price, who she lived with along with Simon. She currently lives in a flat with Toyah, Simon and Oliver, and works as a PA at Barlow Legal Services.

1997: Arrival
Leanne, her father Les, stepmother Janice and stepsister Toyah moved into 5 Coronation Street in the summer of 1997 when Leanne was 16. The Battersbys were considered "the family from hell" and Leanne was a mischievous troublemaker who would shoplift and play loud music with Toyah. As Leanne was not in education, Janice insisted on her getting a job. She got Leanne a job as a cleaner at Underworld where she herself worked, but this did not last long as Leanne was lazy and rude to those around her.

1998-1999: Marriage to Nick Tilsley
Leanne began dating Nick Tilsley in late 1997. Nick's mother Gail Platt instantly disapproved of the union as she did not like the Battersbys. Leanne and Gail frequently clashed, but this did not stop the teenagers from running away to Scotland to get married in January 1998. In an effort to become a more responsible adult, Leanne quit her hairdressing course and started working with Rita Sullivan in The Kabin.

When Nick met Darren Whateley, the man who had killed his father, Brian, he wrote letters to Darren under Leanne's name as part of a revenge plot. Leanne was terrified when Darren showed up unexpectedly to meet her, asking for sex. Later on, when Darren learned he had been set up, he threatened Leanne, but Nick rescued her just in time. The events put a large strain on Nick and Leanne's relationship.

When Nick modelled for Miranda Peters, the relationship was put on further strain. Leanne refused to speak to him, or attend his 18th birthday party on 31st December 1998. However, when Leanne's half-brother Greg Kelly attacked Nick, she came back to him and told him that she was pregnant. Nick was horrified at the thought of becoming a dad. Furious, he demanded that she abort the unborn child and pretend to everyone else that she had miscarried the baby. Leanne reluctantly agreed, but their relationship couldn't survive such trauma and they consequently divorced. Nick went back to Canada and Leanne took what financial offer she could get from Gail as a divorce settlement.

Newly single, Leanne began dating new resident Vikram Desai who was working at the Corner Shop at the time. Excessive partying and late nights took its toll on Leanne. She subsequently resigned from The Kabin following a misunderstanding over missing money. She then started working behind the bar at the Rovers for Natalie Horrocks.

1999-2000: Becoming a drug addict
Leanne went on to become addicted to cocaine. She ended up deeply in debt to drug dealer Jez Quigley, and upon occasion was forced to sleep with him. She owed him money and became desperate. She was going to allow him to rob the Rovers on New Year's Day 2000, but at the last minute backed out and landed herself in hospital after a fight with one of Jez's thugs. Leanne was scared and decided to leave Weatherfield. Knowing Jez to be capable of extreme violence, she left Weatherfield for Amsterdam with her friend Mark Redman later in the year to escape the gangster's clutches.

2004-2006: Relationship with the Baldwins
In June 2004, Les discovered Leanne dressed as a belly dancer in a back street local bar, serving beer. She returned to the Street and moved back in with Janice. She quickly caused trouble for ex-husband Nick and his latest girlfriend Maria Sutherland. She had heard about how Maria had betrayed Toyah by having a fling with John Arnley, and decided to take revenge on both Maria and her former husband. Leanne and Maria’s sparring culminated in a brawl in the Rovers Return. Eventually, Leanne's scheming paid off as Nick left Weatherfield without Maria.

Not long after her return, Leanne started a relationship with Jamie Baldwin. Jamie's stepmother, Frankie Baldwin, hated Leanne, and several ferocious slanging matches ensued. Despite her feud with Frankie, Leanne and Jamie became engaged. However, Leanne began an affair with Jamie's dad, Danny Baldwin, which Frankie discovered. When Jamie learned the truth, he proceeded to call off the engagement, and Leanne temporarily departed the Street to sort her life out.

Leanne and Danny eventually accepted that their respective relationships were over and consequently decided to reunite. When Danny's father, Mike Baldwin, began to suffer from mental illness, Leanne and Danny were the ones who cared for him. However, their main priority was getting their hands on his estate.

Shortly before Mike's death, Danny had managed to manipulate Mike into making a will giving it all to him, and cutting out his other sons, Mark and Adam Barlow. Yet following Mike's death, Leanne discovered a will that post-dated this one and in it, Mike left Adam his fair share. Despite becoming engaged to Leanne, Danny Baldwin truly loved former wife Frankie and ended his relationship with Leanne in a bid for reconciliation. Leanne was devastated and took revenge on Danny by blackmailing him with Mike's latest will. Leanne then double-crossed her ex by giving Mike's second will to Adam, even after Danny gave her the cash which she demanded. Having totally wrecked Danny's life, Leanne then made her exit to Spain.

2007-2008: Prostitution and arson
Leanne returned in March 2007, harbouring the secret that she was now working as an escort. Leanne's beloved former stepmother, Janice Battersby, was horrified to discover the truth and made her disapproval very clear. When Leanne began dating Liam Connor, Janice made her realise that she had to choose between Liam and prostitution. Initially, Leanne chose escorting, but later decided that she should allow her heart to rule her head and gave it up for him. In the latter days of her career as a prostitute, Leanne found herself a new client - Liam's brother Paul Connor.

Leanne went into business with Paul's wife, Carla. They decided to buy and run Italian restaurant Valandro's together. In order to gather up the cash to make the purchase, Leanne made a brief return to her work as a prostitute. This business deal would ultimately lead to Leanne's exposure, as Carla came across one of her clients who told her the truth. Carla was shocked, and decided to abandon their business arrangement.

When Carla ended her marriage to Paul after finding out about his visits to escorts, he blamed Leanne and attempted revenge. He lured her to a car park where he bundled her into the boot of his car to drive to Liam and inform him of the truth. However, a horrific car crash took place during the journey. Leanne was hospitalised, but survived. Paul, on the other hand, did not pull through and died shortly after the accident. Carla revealed Leanne’s profession to Liam, who was stunned and decided that he wanted nothing more to do with Leanne.

Leanne decided to go ahead with opening the restaurant herself. She borrowed £10,000 from Janice‘s boyfriend Roger Stiles, but initially struggled with her new business. She took on Paul Clayton as cook at the restaurant, and began to feel hope when business improved. Paul eventually invested money in the restaurant acquiring a share of the business.

She then began dating bookmaker Dan Mason, by which time the restaurant was beginning to show signs of failure. It was Dan who suggested torching Valandro's for the insurance money. Leanne manipulated Paul into carrying this out for her, offering the promise of a relationship between the two of them. Paul agreed and carried out the arson attack, but was disappointed to realise Leanne had only been using him. He attempted to take revenge on her by confessing his crime to the police, as well as implicating her. However, Dan and Leanne provided alibis for one another on the night of the fire so they got away with the crime. Realising that he alone was going to be sent down, Paul subsequently fled the country to avoid prosecution.

Leanne subsequently got a job working in the bookies with Dan and his father. She then returned to her old job behind the bar at the Rovers as she was not making enough money at the bookies. She was fired by Michelle Connor after she wrongly accused Leanne of sleeping with her boyfriend Steve McDonald.

In September 2008, Leanne and Janice discovered that the syndicate Lottery ticket for the factory girls was a winner - to the tune of nearly £25,000. Leanne convinced her stepmother that she should not tell the other girls about it and keep the winnings for themselves. To claim the winnings they had to set up a bogus bank account under the name of Rosie Webster. They were both thrilled when the cash was lodged to the account, they made up a cover story that an uncle of Janice's had died and had left them a sum of money in his will. Leanne then offered to give Dan the £10,000 which he needed to buy the bookies. However, she clashed with Janice over this as in the meantime, Rosie had vanished and the police could see that money was being withdrawn from the account. Unfortunately for Leanne, Dan found out about the scam after Janice was arrested following her admission of guilt and their relationship subsequently ended.

2008-2012: Return of Peter Barlow
In October 2008, Peter Barlow returned to the Street with his son Simon and Leanne took a shine to both. On 17th December 2008, however, a drunken Peter went to kiss Leanne, and though she rejected him, he grabbed her. In self-defence, Leanne pushed him and he fell into the decorated Christmas tree resulting in Simon waking up and Leanne walking out. However, she later forgave him when he promised to give up the booze and the pair began a relationship.

Early in 2009, Peter was struggling to stay off alcohol and entered a rehabilitation programme with Leanne's support. In his absence she took over running the bookies. Upon his return in March, Leanne discovered he had cheated on her while he was away. Brokenhearted, she subsequently moved to Leeds to take up a job offer managing a restaurant for a friend. Several months later, Peter headed out to Leeds and asked Leanne to give him another chance; she returned to Coronation Street the day after, whereupon they resumed their relationship. Later Leanne and Peter decide to open a bar together in the joinery premises under the viaduct at the end of Coronation Street. Ken was dead set against the plan, but Peter found investment in Simon's maternal grandfather George Wilson, who was attempting to build a relationship with Simon. As work began on the bar, Peter's drink problem returned. George tried to use the alcoholism against Peter to get custody of Simon for himself.

Despite his personal problems, Peter's relationship with Leanne survived and they became engaged. When Leanne's ex-husband Nick moved back to the Street, he decided to use the empty premises in Viaduct Street to open his own bar, The Joinery. Peter encouraged Leanne to take up his offer of a Manager role. In November 2010, The Joinery opened and Leanne began an affair with Nick. Nick begged Leanne not to go through with the wedding as he still loved her. Leanne chose to go ahead with the wedding and call off the affair.

At Peter's stag party in The Joinery on 6th December 2010, a massive gas explosion ripped through the premises, damaging the viaduct and causing a tram to derail and crash into Coronation Street. Peter was gravely injured and trapped with Nick and Ashley Peacock. Peter was eventually rescued from the wreckage and taken to hospital with Leanne by his side. Believing he was close to death, Peter married Leanne that night from his hospital bed.

Peter survived, but his injuries meant that he would have to learn to walk again. On Christmas Day, Peter announced in the Rovers that he intended to be walking by 14th February when he planned to give Leanne the wedding that she deserved. Encouraged by a manipulative Nick, Peter began secretly drinking again. A week before Leanne and Peter renewed their vows, her affair with Nick came to the knowledge of Tracy Barlow, who eventually told Peter. At the blessing, Peter exposed the affair in front of the whole congregation, and said he wanted a divorce. Thinking she'd lost Peter forever, Leanne decided to leave Weatherfield for London, but after Ken convinced Peter that Leanne was the best thing that had happened to him and Simon, he went to try and stop Leanne from leaving. They decided to give their relationship another go.

In mid-2011 Stella Price and her daughter Eva moved to Weatherfield, as Stella had recently become landlady of the Rovers. When Stella met Leanne she realised that Leanne was her estranged biological daughter, born when Stella had been in a teenage relationship with Les Battersby. During Leanne's 30th birthday party, Stella confessed to Leanne that she was her mother, also revealing that Eva was her half-sister. Leanne rejected Stella, believing that she had abandoned her but slowly made amends and came to accept her and Eva as family.

In July 2011 Leanne became pregnant with Peter's child but soon afterwards miscarried after falling down a flight of stairs. Although they tried for another child, she learned she was unlikely to get pregnant again as one of her Fallopian tubes became blocked after the miscarriage.

That year, Peter had started an affair with Carla Connor. Leanne remained oblivious until Frank Foster's rape trial in January 2012, when Peter admitted to the affair. Leanne then ran off to the flat to pack her bags. She and Peter had a massive row causing her to leave Weatherfield. It was only her concern for Simon that caused her to return and fight for custody. Peter refused to allow Leanne to spend any time with Simon, but when Simon became ill after drinking a bottle of wine, it became clear that Simon wanted to move in with Leanne. Peter was forced to relent and let him live with her.

2012-2014: Back to Nick
In June 2012, Leanne got back with Nick while pursuing a divorce from Peter, which came through that November. Within a few days, Eva and Kylie Platt plotted against Leanne and told Nick to propose as Leanne would love it, knowing that she would react badly to the idea. Their plan worked at first and the couple split up after the failed proposal, but Leanne soon realised that she loved Nick and proposed to him in the Rovers.

Leanne and Nick got engaged and Nick booked the wedding for Christmas Day. On the morning of the wedding, Leanne visited Peter and said that she would give their relationship another go, however Peter's girlfriend Carla reappeared unannounced and Leanne decided to marry Nick after all. At the ceremony Eva revealed the truth about why Leanne was late, Nick cancelled the wedding and they split up. In the New year, Nick and Peter came to blows over Leanne and Nick smashed the bistro up. Following a confrontation with Stella, Leanne decided to leave Weatherfield for good. The next day she told Nick that she was leaving and clear that he still had feelings for her, he went to the Rovers to talk to Leanne and begged her not to go. The pair later announced the wedding was back on and they were successfully re-married on 11th January 2013.

In August of that year, the bistro van - with Nick and David inside - was hit by a lorry, and Nick was comatose for nearly two months. The brothers had been arguing about Nick's one-night-stand with David's wife Kylie, and the uncertainty regarding the parentage of Kylie's daughter Lily, all of which Leanne was completely unaware. Nick eventually recovered and went back home with Leanne, by which point a DNA test had confirmed that David was Lily's father. During Lily's christening in October 2013, the truth about Nick and Kylie's one-night stand emerged. Leanne broke up with Nick after hearing the news but they reconciled after a few weeks.

Nick's brain injury caused him to experience mood swings, leading him to shout at Simon and hit Leanne. Leanne stood by Nick, but he himself ended their relationship in January 2014 so that he wouldn't be able to hurt them. Shortly afterwards, Leanne started an affair with Kal Nazir. When Nick found out he became enraged and revealed Leanne's history as a prostitute to Kal's family. Nick and Leanne eventually divorced and Leanne continued her relationship with Kal.

2015-2016: Abuse from Simon
In June 2015, Kal died after he and Leanne rescued Amy Barlow from a fire which broke out inside 12 Victoria Court on the same day Kal proposed to her. She became distressed and blamed Carla for allegedly leaving a candlestick lit (when in reality it was Tracy Barlow). Simon got angry and threw a remote control at Leanne's face, injuring and stunning her.

Leanne was held hostage by Dan Jones with Liz McDonald and Simon, where Dan revealed Leanne's history as a prostitute to Simon. Although they escaped from Dan, Simon was disgusted at Leanne. She continued to receive physical and verbal abuse from Simon over the months and after an incident where she was knocked out when Simon threw her at a table, she admitted what was happening to Kal's son Zeedan.

Unable to cope with her stepson's behaviour, Leanne sent him to live with Ken in November 2015. During this time, Simon hit his cousin Amy and Leanne was forced to open up about the problems she was having to Ken and Tracy. In February 2016, Leanne reported Simon's abuse to the police when he broke another boy's leg during a football match. Simon fell out with her because he had actually broken the leg by accident. Eventually though, they made up.

2016-: First child
In June 2016 Leanne slept with Steve McDonald, who called round to her flat upset over his recent split from his wife Michelle Connor. A few weeks later she discovered she was pregnant but kept it a secret. She told Steve about the pregnancy, by which point he was back with Michelle. He offered to help pay for an abortion but Leanne was adamant that she was keeping the baby due to her past fertility problems. Steve did not approve of this but Leanne told him that nobody had to know he was the father. Afterwards, Leanne found out that Steve had told his mother about the situation, much to her frustration. She also found out that Michelle was pregnant with Steve's child as well.

Leanne started to rekindle her relationship with Nick but instead decided to move to Liverpool with Simon to escape the drama. Learning she was pregnant, Nick arrived at the bus station just in time and convinced Leanne that he loved her and didn't want her to move away. A relieved Leanne tearfully admitted the same. Leanne decided to remain in Weatherfield and start a relationship with Nick for the third time. Nick suggested she tell everyone he was the father. When Tracy saw Leanne returning from her first scan, she found out about the pregnancy and announced it in the Rovers, forcing Leanne to tell Nick's family on the spot that she was carrying his child.

On Christmas Day Leanne was shocked when Toyah returned to Weatherfield after nearly fourteen years away, having split up with her husband Toby. Leanne let Toyah move in with her, unaware that she was having a secret affair with Peter. Several weeks later, Leanne realised what was happening between her stepsister and ex-husband, and furiously kicked Toyah out.

In January 2017 Michelle lost her baby, Ruairi, intensifying both Leanne and Steve's guilt over their deception. In February Leanne went into labour while trapped in the lift with Toyah at Victoria Court. Despite the circumstances, she successfully gave birth to her son Oliver, also choosing to forgive Toyah over her relationship with Peter. Later that week Nick's family decided to celebrate the birth of what they thought was Nick's baby in the bistro. During the event, Steve held Oliver and confessed to Michelle that he was the baby's father. Furious and still grieving over her own son's death, Michelle hit Leanne, wishing Oliver dead.

First and last lines
"About time. What took you?" (First line, to Janice Battersby)

Background information

 * Leanne was introduced by Brian Park alongside the rest of her family in a shake-up for the show and to bring it up to date. The family were not popular with viewers when they first came into the show.
 * Jane Danson quit the role of Leanne in 2000 after playing the character for three years. However four years later, she was reintroduced back into the programme.
 * Leanne has left a couple of times since her comeback in 2004. She was absent from July 2006 to March 2007 when Jane Danson went on maternity leave. The character left again and was absent from March to September 2009 when Jane gave birth to her second child.