Abi Franklin

Abigail "Abi" Franklin is the mother of Seb, Charlie and Lexi Franklin.

Unknown-2017: Motherhood and addictions
In 2001, Abi Franklin gave birth to her eldest son, Sebastian. However, his father didn't stick around long after the birth and Abi was forced to raise Seb alone. The pressures of being a single mother were too much to bear for Abi and she often found herself being consoled by alcohol, and on occasion even drugs. By 2012, Abi had become involved with an abusive man called Lucas - who fathered her twins; Charlie and Lexi.

Seb took on a parenting role for the twins, as Lucas was just as unreliable as Abi, despite only being young himself. Seb would often allow himself to be physically assaulted by Lucas, something which Abi was aware of but was unable to prevent. As a result of her inability to stand up to Lucas' abuse, Abi's relationship with her son became increasingly strained - however, she still cared deeply for him and attempted to protect him, especially after his ex-girlfriend Lacey passed away, by deciding against telling him that he may have contracted HIV from Lacey.

In September 2017, Seb suffered a vicious attack at the hands of Lucas which made him finally speak out and tell his girlfriend, Faye Windass, about the domestic abuse. The attack also opened Abi's eyes - she finally finished things with her husband and threw him out. Despite allegedly cleaning up her act, Seb still didn't trust Abi to take full responsibility with the twins and, when his girlfriend Faye suggested that the pair run away together - to escape threats to their relationship by her father Tim Metcalfe and adoptive mother Anna Windass - Seb refused as he didn't want to leave Charlie and Lexi alone with their mother.

2017-present: Seeking help and improving
After discovering that her daughter's boyfriend had actually put a stop to the plan of running away, rather than being the instigator as she first thought, Anna began taking an interest into Seb's home-life and became concerned for the well-being of Charlie and Lexi. Anna's involvement infuriated Abi, who found her to be patronising. However, she later began to take advantage of Anna's caring nature when she allowed her to look after the twins while she took naps upstairs. Despite allowing Anna to continue to help, Abi still found problem with her constant criticisms - especially after Anna lectured her against drinking while she should be looking after her children.

Eventually, after another heated row between Abi and Anna - during which Abi banned Anna from her house - Seb confided in Anna that his mother used to be a heroin addict and that he was scared after seeing her former dealers hanging around the house. In October, Abi had relapsed and overdosed on drugs, lying unconscious in the living room Abi was discovered by the twins - before getting assistance from a horrified Seb and Faye. After an ambulance was called to assist her, Abi was confirmed to be back on drugs and social services, assisted by the police, arrived to take Charlie and Lexi into care.

After the incident, Seb accused Anna of being the one to call social services (when in fact it had actually been Faye's step-mother Sally Metcalfe). A few weeks later, when Seb found himself accidentally falling from a ladder whist cleaning windows, Anna became a prime suspect. However, she was more focused on Abi's confession that Seb might have HIV - something he may have later passed onto Faye after the pair became intimate. Abi refused to take responsibility for not informing Seb of the virus, and attempted to blame Faye (calling her "a slut") which resulted in Anna furiously threatening to rip her tongue out if she said another word against her daughter. After infroming Seb about the possibility of him having HIV, Seb took the news badly and told her to leave. Before she left Abi attempted to cause more trouble by telling the police that Anna had threatened her - in order to back up the claims that she had pushed Seb off his ladder.

In January 2018, Abi returned, having endured a stint in rehab, to ask Seb to give her a second chance and to move away and help her get the twins back. Seb, who was scared of Pat Phelan - now convinced that he had concocted the whole story about Anna pushing him off his ladder and that he had killed Luke Britton - agreed to leave Weatherfield with his mum. Abi explained that she was placed on a re-housing scheme whilst in rehab, and she might have been able to get them onto the register - however, she was later forced to admit that she had fabricated the whole story to gain Seb's support again. Seb, who was disgusted by his mother's actions and at first kicked her out, later agreed to go with her in order to escape Phelan.

Days later Phelan met with Abi, where he pretended to look like a caring boss by handing her the last of Seb's wages. However, he was actually attempting to track Seb down in order to silence him - Abi lied and agreed that she would report back to him if Seb contacted her. However, Gary Windass later tracked Abi and Seb to a cafe and begged Seb to stand up against Phelan in court and defend Anna. Eventually, Seb decided to go to court and testify alongside Anna - and once again his relationship with Abi deteriorated.

In April, a now homeless Abi once again returned to Seb's life - breaking into Eileen Grimshaw's house, 11 Coronation Street, she slept on the sofa hoping to be gone before either Seb or Eileen woke up. However, she was later discovered and Eileen took pity on her - agreeing that she could stay another night on the sofa. In May, Abi was able to secure herself a job at the garage working for Kevin Webster, however unbeknownst to everyone she was still homeless (making out to Seb that she had turned her life around) and was sleeping in a car in the garage. Following Pat Phelan's death in June and then Eileen and Nicola Rubinstein's exit the same month, Abi moved into Eileen's house alongside Seb without Eileen's knowledge. Abi lied to social services pretending that she owned the house, in order to better her chances of getting her children back, and turned away the estate agents that Eileen had hired to sell the house.

Abi developed a feud with Eileen's friend Steve McDonald, who became concerned about Abi living in Eileen's house without her knowledge - however, after being set up (with Abi taking a picture of Steve with a bunch of her female friends and threatening to contact his fiancé, Tracy Barlow, if he reported back to Eileen) Steve agreed to keep quiet about Abi's living arrangements but advised her to sort her life around. In July, Steve believed that he had witnessed Abi being taken in for questioning after returning to drugs - however, she was actually being taken in to provide a statement after she reported a customer who had drugs in his vehicle, and Steve reported back to Eileen. Discovering that he had made a huge mistake, Steve along with Tracy helped Abi and Seb sort Eileen's house out before she could return. Eileen was furious to find Abi living there and threw her out, but Steve later persuaded her to let her stay permanently.

Grateful for her help, Abi began to grow a friendship with Tracy - much to the frustration of Tracy's best friend and maid of honour, Beth Sutherland. However, Abi broke Tracy's trust in August as she kissed Steve whilst drunk - after he comforted her when a meeting with the twins didn't go to plan. Abi and Steve both agreed to completely forget about the kiss - and Abi became more involved with the wedding, helping Steve pick out an engagement ring and also suggesting that the pair have a very public and professional first dance, something she knew Steve would not enjoy. However, Steve later found out that she had been the one to encourage Tracy to have a first dace and he forced Abi to help him practice the routine.

In September, a few weeks before Steve's wedding, Tracy offered Steve a "free pass" to a gym. However, Steve assumed that she had given him a free pass to sleep with another woman (before being tied down permanently by marriage) and wanted to use the pass on Abi. Just before he was about to make a move on Abi, Steve stopped himself realising that it may be a trap to test his loyalties - although, Abi knew nothing about it. Steve began to wonder why he was so tempted by Abi and started to reconsider marrying Tracy - all this ended in him sleeping with Leanne Battersby.

When Abi discovered Steve's betrayal she told him that she had no choice but to tell Tracy, but Steve threatened to reveal her drunken kiss from earlier in the year so Abi remained quiet. On the day of Steve and Tracy's wedding, Tracy came under the impression that Abi and Steve were having an affair and so damaged Michelle Connor's car in order to frame Abi. However, Tracy ultimately discovered that the reason Steve and Abi had become close was because she was helping him practice the first dance routine. Apologising, Tracy asked Abi to be her Maid of Honour.

At the wedding Tracy discovered Steve and Leanne's affair and ended her relationship with him, at the same time Michelle's car broke down due to the damage inflicted upon it by Tracy. Michelle and her sons Ali and Ryan were attacked by drug-dealer Ronan Truman and they were unable to escape due to the car being damaged - Ronan attempted to run the family down but crashed, leaving himself dead at Ali's hands and Ryan and Leanne in serious condition.

Tracy, who was unaware of the crash, decided to go on her honeymoon with Steve, in order to exact her revenge on him, and returned a week later having stolen his passport and leaving him in a Moroccan desert. Upon her return, Tracy discovered that Abi was being blamed for damaging the car and that the police believed she had been in contact with Ronan due to her history with drugs. Tracy kept her involvement in the crash quiet and was left unable to help Abi as she lost her job as a result of punching Kevin, who believed her to be guilty.

Steve later found out that Tracy had been being the crash, but agreed to keep it to himself as he wanted to win her back. The pair attempted to help Abi through her difficult times by offering her a job as a switch operator at Street Cars but Abi still reverted back to her old ways and ended up hospitalised after drinking excessively.

Background information

 * Actress Sally Carman joined the cast of Coronation Street in August 2017, and Abi's scenes were first aired in October 2017 - this was a guest stint, with the character being written out the same month. However, she was later brought back in for another few episodes in January 2018 and then permanently from April 2018.

First and last lines
"Seb said you'd be coming over" (First line, to Anna Windass)