Jude Appleton

Jude Appleton was the long-lost son of Mary Taylor. After Mary was sexually assaulted at the age of fourteen by a minister, she gave birth to Jude. He was abandoned at St. Jude's Hospital in Newton-le-Willows, where he was found by nurse Maureen Nuttall. He was named after the hospital, and later put up for adoption.

Mary decided to track him down with the help of her friend Norris Cole after she experienced a health scare in December 2016. She gave up out of embarrassment when she mistakenly believed and told a man named Jude Sawyer that he was her son. When Gemma Winter found out about the situation, she recorded a video asking to help track down Jude, which she hoped would go viral on social media.

Shortly afterwards, on Christmas Day, Jude arrived in Weatherfield having located his mother at Roy's Rolls, where she was having Christmas dinner with friends Norris Cole, Roy Cropper and Brian Packham. Jude told Mary that he had a happy childhood with his adopted family, but his foster parents had died a few years earlier. He also revealed that he was working as a Marine Biologist and living in South Africa with his wife; who was pregnant with their first child. When he asked her about his biological father, Mary couldn't bring herself to tell him the truth so she lied that she had been madly in love with him but he had died. Jude made an offer to Mary to come and live with him which she accepted.

Norris was devastated to think that he was going to lose his friend for good and Jude saw how he felt. He assured Norris that the new life he had painted for her was true and he promised that he would look after her properly. Mary found it hard to say her various goodbyes, especially as they coincided with the more melancholy aspects of New Year celebrations that some experience. Jude saw that his mother was starting to have doubts herself and assured her that the last thing he wanted to do was to pressurise her into doing something she didn't want to do. The two left by taxi that night for Manchester Airport to the strains of We'll Meet Again sung by the neighbours as Norris sat on the stairs of No.3 and wept. In the small hours of the morning he answered a knock on the door to see Mary there - when the final moment had come, she had found herself unable to leave and Jude returned to South Africa alone.

List of appearances
2016 2017 2018