Sophie Webster

Sophie Webster (née Lauren Webster) is the youngest daughter of Kevin and Sally Webster. She has an older sister, Rosie, and two half-brothers Jake (who died shortly after his birth) and Jack.

Sophie, who was one of the few religious residents of the Street, developed feelings for her best friend Sian Powers in 2010 and subsequently came out as a lesbian. She has previously worked at the Corner Shop for Dev and Sunita Alahan and volunteered to support local charities, where she was responsible for re-introducing a homeless Dennis Tanner to his old flame Rita Sullivan.

Background
Sophie was born in 1994 to parents Kevin Webster and Sally Webster. Sally and Kevin planned to call their new daughter Lauren, however, Rosie kept calling the baby "Sophie" after her doll. Kevin and Sally warmed to Rosie's suggestion and later changed her name by law. For the first five years of her life, Sophie’s parents were very much in love but unfortunately, Kevin’s affair changed everything. With Sally struggling to bring up her girls on her own, she made bad relationship decisions - most notably when she went out with a psychotic man,Greg Kelly. He went on to kidnap Sophie. After this distressing incident Kevin and Sally rekindled their love for each other and remarried. Some years later Sophie overheard her parents arguing about an affair Sally had with her boss, Ian Davenport, whose daughter Gemma was friends with Rosie. She feared they would get a divorce but this never happened. Needless to say she had a very stressful childhood.

Casting
Ashleigh Middleton played Sophie from her birth up until March 1997 when Emma Woodward who was just three years old at the time took over the role. In 2004 Emma quit the role of Sophie to concentrate on her school work.Coronation Street staff ran auditions and Brooke Vincent was the successful candidate. In an interview Brooke revealed that her role in Coronation Street was just part of her life, stating she doesn't see it as a job because it's so much fun. She also works a Saturday job and attends school but manages to fit all three into her schedule. “I have a normal life and the Corrie stuff is my bonus life,” As the character grew older Coronation street bosses were impressed by Brooke's performance as Sophie and decided to give her more storylines and in order to do so they cast some classmates for her. They were eventually cast in December.Coronation Street told the Daily Star that: "Brooke is an amazing actress and the introduction of two characters her own age will give the writers free rein to come up with some fantastic plots for her."

Personality
Sophie is portrayed as a determined, strong-willed young woman who is devoted to her family and friends. As a younger teen she went through a phase of being rebellious and causing criminal damage. She also pretended to be pregnant in order to garner attention from her parents. Sophie has since converted to Christianity and was baptized in 2009. After the revelation of her lesbian relationship, Sophie left home with her girlfriend to start a new life. She returned some weeks later due to financial issues. ITV publicity describes Sophie as a girl who is determined to live her life her own way after being neglected by her parents in favour of elder sister Rosie. Also stating that even after her hardships she went through growing up she has turned out pretty well-adjusted with a good sense of humour. What's on TV magazine describes her as not being as bright as her sister Rosie, but always gets her own way as she is the apple of her father's eye. This may be contested as in more recent years Sophie has been portrayed as far more intelligent than her older sister. Fellow actor Craig Gazey describes the character as very gobby and a perfect match for his character Graeme Proctor.

Relationships
Sophie briefly dated Ben Richardson before discovering he had been unfaithful. She also went on a date with a teen called Lee but his main interest was sex, Sophie turned down his affections. During her break up with Ben and her rebound date, Sophie seemed thoroughly heartbroken and relied heavily on her friend Sian Powers. This close friendship developed into a relationship even though both Sian and Sophie had been involved in heterosexual relationships beforehand. The attraction seemed to come as a surprise to both of the girls. As of September 2010, Sophie's mother Sally has welcomed Sian into the family home. Sophie has rather recently developed a close relationship with her sister Rosie. The two spent the majority of their time together as children arguing and competing, but since Sophie's revelation of her lesbian relationship, Rosie has been supportive. When Sophie briefly left home, Rosie was the one person from home she kept in contact with.

Sophie has a strained relationship with her parents but as of late the relationships have become closer. The family saw some bonding in early 2010 when Sally was diagnosed with cancer. She has argued with her father Kevin due to his disinterest in her personal life. Unbeknownst to Sophie, some of Kevin's agitation and neglect was caused by his stressful affair with Molly Dobbs. Sophie is also close with Emily Bishop, presumably because they attend the same church and Emily offers spiritual guidance. She had a friendship with Ryan Connor but after it was revealed that she was dating Sian, Ryan became disgusted and taunted and threatened Sophie and Sian for some time. Sophie did have close friendships with Chesney Brown and Cameron McIntyre as they were all the same age and did many things together, however Cameron left the street two weeks after they met, and Sophie hasn't been seen with Chesney for some time.

At the end of 2011, Sophie and Sian's wedding day arrived. However it unfortunately ended up with Sian leaving Weatherfield with her mum because of a kiss between Sophie and Amber months earlier.

Storylines
Until her pre-teen years, Sophie hadn't really had any particular storylines, apart from a life of hell with Sally's physco partner Greg Kelly, having a feud with David Platt and being neglected by her own mother in favour of Rosie. Sophie often showed jealousy of sister Rosie and constantly fought and competed with her too. Sophie developed a good bond with Chesney Brown, and the pair did most things together.

One of Sophie's first story-lines revolved around her journey into secondary school. Sophie had arrived for her first day when she was promptly sent home for not being registered with Weatherfield High. Sally found out and was furious although the error turned out to be her own. She had failed to fill in the application forms adequately due to her indecision regarding whether Sophie would attend Weatherfield High or Oakhill Private School (as Rosie had done)l Sophie had to go without school for weeks as Mr Lewis, the headteacher of the school, would not give her admission. Sally looked up other schools in the area to find they all had terrible reputations. When Sally was dropping Rosie off at Oakhill, she saw Mr Lewis taking Jessica for her first day there. Remembering he said Jessica had Sophie's place in Weatherfield High, Sally threatened to tell the local newspaper about his lies, which earned Sophie a place at Weatherfield High. Sophie and Chesney nearly fell out when Chesney's step-father Les had gossiped to the street residents about Chesney seeing a naked Sally in the shower. The two remained friends anyway after they made up, and in winter that year, Sophie developed a friendship with Nicolette Seddon. Soon, they pair realised they were related and when Sally found out, she was furious as Nicolette was so illicit and unpleasant. Sophie and Nicolette began hanging out in the street and were rude to Gail Platt and Roy Cropper, pushing Sally to breaking point. When Rosie and her boyfriend Craig were looking after Sophie for Sally, Sophie went out to see Nicolette after being told not to leave the house. When Sally returned to find Sophie gone she was frantic, but Sophie was later found by Rosie and Craig. A livid Kevin and Sally soon discovered she had been smoking and after a huge row with Nicolette's parents, Sophie and Nicolette were banned from seeing each other ever again. In early 2006, while Rosie was away, Sophie found out that Craig cheated on her with Suzy Watkins. When Rosie returned from her trip away, Sophie revealed to her sister that Craig had Suzy in his bedroom. Despite not believing her at first, Rosie split from Craig, leaving Sophie showing little sympathy for Rosie. In the summer, Sophie and Chesney started hanging out with Chesney's friend Cameron McIntyre. The trio started making mischief by prank-calling residents of the street and taking horror DVDs from Chesney's step dad Les. The films had an 18 certificate so Sally was annoyed when she found them watching one in her living room and chucked them out the house, leaving them with nothing more to do. Cameron then stole cigarettes and an enamoured Sophie took one, despite being warned by Chesney not to do so. Sally later found them in the alley behind the houses and smelt tobacco. The finger of blame pointed at Chesney as Cameron and Sophie had passed the cigarettes to Chesney. Later on, Sophie stole money from Sally to buy cigarettes for her and Cameron, but Sally assumed it was Chesney as his family were known as thieves. Sophie and Cameron felt bad for Chesney and Sophie told her shocked parents everything that happened, leaving her friendship with Cameron broken. Later that year, Sophie and Chesney found an old diary in the attic of number five. It belonged to the late Ivy Brennan and Sophie started convincing people that she was psychic, Vera Duckworth even paid her to do a reading. When Rosie found out she told David Platt who said it was his step-gran's old diary. Sophie handed it over to David who was shocked to discover that his mum almost had an abortion, in which Ivy recorded in her diary. David confronted his mum about it on Christmas Day.

On Valentine's Day 2007, she got her mum to write a valentine's card, which Sally assumed was for Chesney, (Sophie purposefully saying nothing to the contrary), however, she posted it through Norris Cole's door. Norris recognised Sally's writing from a cheque she wrote him and was convinced that Sally had a crush on him. The truth was soon revealed and Sophie was made to apologise. Months later, Sophie vented her anger on Fiz Brown's motor scooter after finding out Fiz was dating her drama teacher, John Stape, who Sophie has a crush on. Her sister Rosie Webster soon had an affair with John and when this was announced, trouble emerged, as John was Rosie's teacher. Kevin attacked John on the street, and was later arrested. This heightened the differences between her and Rosie, and they got into fights and arguments. Tension relaxed when Kevin was released from prison. In May 2008, Sophie gave Chesney some help to get with her friend Kayleigh Morton. In September, Rosie mysteriously disappeared. Three weeks later Kevin received a postcard saying 'Sophie's next.' Sophie later reveals it was her who sent the postcards as she was tired of all the attention Rosie was getting. Even though Sophie and Rosie declared a truce, the division between them lingered. In January 2009 Kevin found a used pregnancy test in the bin. Suspecting it was Sally's, he asked her but she denied that she was pregnant. They then believed that it is their wild child daughter Rosie that was pregnant, but she also denied it. It was then that Sophie revealed it was her. It was later revealed that she made the pregnancy up in a bid for attention. She revealed all to Sally after being pressed about going to the doctor.

In March 2010, Sophie realized she was in love with her best friend Sian Powers. This all kicked off when Sophie told Sian that Ryan tried it on with her so Sian came back to Weatherfield to shout at Ryan. He turned it on Sophie causing her and Sian to fall out. As Ryan and Sian waited for the bus to got to the train station, Sian found out that Ryan did try it on with Sophie and goes round to apologise to her for what happened. Sian told Sophie that she is more important to her than any lad and Sophie kissed her. After the kiss Sian burst out crying and ran out of the house. The next day, Sophie was still very sad about what happened the previous night and decided to stay home from school, telling her Dad she was ill, when at first Kevin didn't believe. Later that day, Sophie told Kevin that she wasn't ill and that she was missing a specific person, Sian. Kevin though it was Ben. Sophie then tried to track down Sian, but found it hard as she couldn't get hold of Sian. Sophie then asked her Dad to go to Southport to find Sian, but Kevin refused as Sophie was grounded, but she still went behind her Dad's back. While at Southport, Sophie tried to reason with Sian, but failed and left. She then decided to go on another date with Ryan's friend Lee after being persuaded by Corner Shop Owner, Amber Kalirai, which Sophie and Sian found hard.

In 2011, Sian and Sophie's relationship was finally approved of by everyone in their family. Sian kept her distance from Sophie for various reasons, so Sophie started drinking alcohol and refusing help from friend Sunita Alahan. Turning up drunk at church, Sophie told the priest that God hated her so much that she was so hurt. Not listening to the priest, Sophie climbed up on the church roof to shout at God. When the priest followed her and persuaded her to come down, Sophie fell off and landed on a car. At the hospital, Sophie and the Webster's were told that she would live and Sian re-united with her. When Sian went on holiday later on, Amber Kalirai took Sophie on a night out, but when Sophie received unwanted attention by another man, Amber threw herself at Sophie but she managed to back off. Sophie quit her job at the corner shop and pitied Amber too. At the end of 2011, Sophie and Sian decided to get married. However at the altar, Sophie got cold feet and Sian fled the church. After a long talk, Sian agreed to give Sophie another chance. Unfortunately, when Amber confroned Sophie about their kiss months ago and whether she liked her or not, Sian overheard everything and packed her bags. Telling a devastated Sophie she hated her, Sian left the street with her mother.

In early 2012, Rosie announced to her family that she'd be leaving Weatherfield to take part in a TV series, leaving Sophie a little sad although they said goodbye on good terms. By this point, Sophie had got over Sian. In the summer of 2012, Sophie was shocked when Ryan came back to the street again. He convinced Sophie to do drugs, and they got high together. Sophie and Ryan left a cigarette unattended that burned some curtains down, but thankfully nothing else. Later that year, Sophie got hit by a car whilst trying to save a high Ryan from being hit when he played chicken on the road. Sophie was in danger of being permanently paralysed, but to her parents' relief she only suffered minor injuries. Physiotherapist Jenna Kamara helped Sophie's pain go away, but Sophie fell in love with her soon afterwards. Things went wrong on Christmas Day when a drunken Kevin made a move on Jenna, so she threatened to put Sophie in someone else's care. Sophie began to hate Kevin so much she didn't want to see him ever again. Eventually, after a talk with Sally, Jenna let it go and continued to treat Sophie, and the fallout with Kevin fizzled out. In early 2013, Sophie picked up the courage to finally spend time with Jenna and even kiss her, and she responded back. The pair immediately began dating, much to the disapproval of Jenna's mother Mandy and Kevin. Later that year, Sophie was a little devastated when her close friend Sunita Alahan died from an inferno caused by Karl Munro, so to help her husband Dev out, Sophie minded the shop for longer with Jenna and helped out with their kids Asha and Aadi. Sophie grew wary of Karl. In the summer, Sophie caused tension between her and Jenna as Paul Kershaw made a remark which Jenna classed as racist. Sophie reported Paul to the fire station he worked at, which made Paul nearly lose his job, and hit Jenna's father Lloyd Mullaney in the face later on. Jenna avoided Sophie, but later they made up after peace was restored. Sophie soon began growing tired of her mother dating Tim Metcalfe, as he kept making her look like a fool. Weeks later, Jenna decided to split from Sophie due to the fact about how different they were from each other. Upset, Sophie removed a hurt Jenna from the house.