Bernadine Simone "Bernie" Winter-Alahan (née Winter) is the plain-speaking mother of Gemma Winter-Brown, Paul Foreman and Kit Green, assistant at Roy's Rolls and Prima Doner and wife of Dev Alahan.
Bernie brought up Gemma and Paul by herself on the rough Paul Robeson Estate. Hard as nails, she would do anything for her kids, including lying and stealing. During this time, she had a relationship with Kel Hinchley, who secretly groomed a teenaged Paul for sex. As adults, Gemma and Paul saw Bernie as a loose cannon and had little contact with her, blaming her for failing them as children.
In 2019, after Gemma became pregnant with quads, Bernie moved into 5 Coronation Street and helped prepare for the births. She has stuck around ever since, doing her best for Gemma and Chesney in her own inimitable way. In 2023, her efforts to help Paul financially following his MND diagnosis backfired when she was charged with handling stolen goods and given a three-month custodial sentence. Coming to terms with Paul's death, Bernie tracked down her youngest child, Kit, who she gave up for adoption as a baby, though Kit mostly kept her at arm's length until they were bonded over the discovery that Kit had a son of his own, Brody Michaelis.
Bernie and Dev were married in 2025, and, Bernie moved into 7 Coronation Street with Alahans.
Biography
Early life
Bernie and her partner Denny Foreman were residents of the rough Paul Robeson Estate in the 1980s. Her lifestyle of partying and drug-taking continued when she became pregnant. A twin herself with her brother Mike, Bernie gave birth to a son and a daughter in August 1990, naming them Apollo and Gemini due to her passion for astrology.
2007: Bernie is prevented from seeing Zodiac by his adoptive mother
In 1992, Bernie and Denny had a massive row and split up. Bernie reacted by getting off her face and copping off with a stranger, which resulted in a third child, Zodiac. Now a single mother, Bernie couldn't cope with a needy baby and had a breakdown. She begged social services to take Zac away, and a couple of years later he was adopted by his foster family, the Greens, taking the name Christopher. As the twins got older, Bernie realised what a mistake she'd made giving Christopher up. In 2007, she asked his mother Amanda if she could see him, but her drugged-up state led Amanda to refuse and prevent her from making further contact. Once her son came of age, she reached out to Christopher directly and they arranged to meet at a cafe. However, Bernie was so nervous that she got drunk and stood him up. After that, she accepted that it wasn't to be and decided to focus on Gemma and Paul.
Bernie was never overly maternal, and made a lot of mistakes with the twins. They rejected the names she'd given them, identifying as Paul and Gemma, and in 2004 when Paul's moody behaviour caused her boyfriend Kel Hinchley to leave her, Bernie kicked him out without trying to get to the bottom of his anger issues. Paul had to move in with Denny, who physically abused him. Paul and Gemma saw Bernie as a selfish and uncaring mother who would sell them for a quick buck. By 2016, they were both estranged from her. Bernie also had a criminal record for dishonesty, but was spared prison.
2019-2020: The bad penny returns
In 2019, when Gemma fell pregnant, she asked Bernie to take her in. They arranged to meet but Bernie didn't turn up, having supposedly dislocated both knee caps. In July of that year, Bernie heard Gemma and her partner Chesney Brown on Radio Weatherfield when they came on to appeal for donations in preparation for the arrival of their quads. True to form, she turned up in Coronation Street and spun her daughter a sob story about her looming eviction as a pretext to borrowing some of the donation money. Chesney stopped Gemma from handing over the cash, but the couple did invite Bernie to stay at 5 Coronation Street until she got back on her feet.
Taking a dislike to Chesney, Bernie tried to drive a wedge between him and Gemma by making suggestive comments and walking around the house naked. Gemma moved in herself to keep an eye on her when she caught wind of what Bernie was up to. Despite this, she continued to misbehave, stealing a Japanese wishing tree from Victoria Gardens which Chesney made her return, selling samples of Gemma's urine for positive pregnancy tests on the web and collecting a parking fine when she used Chesney's car without permission. In the latter case, in order to pay the fine she conducted a fake charity collection in the Rovers Return until Jenny Connor intervened.
In September, Bernie was stopped for shoplifting in a mall but released when the security guard turned out to be her Kel. Delighted to see her ex-boyfriend, Bernie rekindled their relationship, which pleased Gemma but horrified Paul. When Paul beat Kel up so badly that he briefly fell into a coma, Kel attributed it to a homophobic comment made at Paul's expense and Bernie forced the pair to shake hands and make up. The following month, Bernie became grandmother to Aled, Bryn, Carys and Llio, and warmly greeted the news that Gemma and Chesney had got engaged. The only thing marring the happy occasion was Paul's refusal to be involved as long as Kel was around.
Bernie got a temporary job as a cleaner at St. Mary's Church in November. Almost straightaway, she was accused of accessing parishioner's data in order to burgle houses while the occupants were out at services. Bernie remembered that Kel went with her when she was cleaning the church and was in vicar Billy Mayhew's office alone for a few minutes. She and Gemma investigated at Kel's flat and found Daniel Osbourne's stolen laptop together with pictures of naked boys, including Paul. The pair questioned Paul, who finally confessed to them that he was groomed as a child by Kel and had been in a sexual relationship with him while underage. Wracked with guilt for failing him all those years ago, Bernie reported Kel to the police.
Unfortunately, the police found nothing incriminating on Kel and Paul's statement wasn't sufficient for the CPS to press charges. Bernie started a smear campaign against Kel, loudly announcing what he'd done to onlookers at the shopping centre where he worked and later trying to entrap him by posing as a 14-year-old boy on his website asking for DJ lessons. Falling for the scheme, Kel arrived to meet his victim at the Red Rec with lager and condoms, but ran off when he saw Bernie and Paul broadcasting the event over social media. However, when vigilantes set fire to petrol poured through No.5's letterbox, Bernie felt guilty that she might have accidentally put Gemma and the quads in danger and decided to let the matter drop. Seven months later, Kel's body was pulled out of Weatherfield Canal. Although Paul was briefly considered a murder suspect, CCTV footage showed no suspicious circumstances.
2020-2023: One step forward, two steps back
Having left No.5 after the petrol incident, Bernie returned for a visit two months later in March 2020. She found Gemma overwhelmed by the pressures of motherhood, and Chesney working every hour he could to keep their heads above water. When Gemma locked herself out of the house with the quads inside, Bernie broke a window and covered for her on the condition that she sought help for post-natal depression. Gemma plucked up the courage to tell Chesney, and Bernie helped the couple out by taking over Chesney's shifts at Prima Doner and handing them her wages in exchange for a roof over her head.
The kebab shop's manager, Cathy Matthews, was unhappy at being landed with lazy Bernie, but the women bonded over drinks at the Rovers and Cathy suggested to Bernie that she and the owner, Dev Alahan, would make a good couple. Bernie was kept on when Chesney returned to work and in October she got a second job at Roy's Rolls.
Bernie almost found Rick Neelan's body in July of that year when she and Brian Packham joined a team of metal detectorists at Beacon Woods. After finding a watch with an inscription on the back, she sold it to Sarah Platt, who had realised who the "Rick" referred to and ultimately chose to protect Rick's killer, Gary Windass. The body would lie undisturbed for another two years.
In May 2021, Bernie accidentally knocked over a bottle of salad dressing in the Corner Shop, which Evelyn Plummer slipped on and hurt her ankle. Evelyn used the fall to take advantage of the pair, making them do all her work and chores for her, under threat of legal action. Her scam was revealed when Bernie caught Evelyn out happily walking on her supposed bad ankle. Before exposing her, Bernie got her own back by carrying treats in her pockets to attract Evelyn's greyhound Cerberus, making her think he'd switched loyalties.
The following month, Bernie took Dev out on a fake date at the Viaduct Bistro after Aadi made cracks about his dad's non-existent love life. Having had a genuinely good time, the pair got carried away and slept together. Bernie was surprised that Dev was interested in her, and was deeply hurt when Mary Taylor reported that she'd overheard Dev making crass comments about her appearance. Dev got his drink poured over him for his troubles, and had to give Bernie a pay rise to stop her from leaving the kebab shop. Their friendship was restored over the coming months and, at Christmas, the pair shared a kiss under the mistletoe.
2022: Dev defends Bernie when she's accused of planning Joseph's disappearance for the money
Raising five children remained a heavy financial burden on Gemma and Chesney. In January 2022, Joseph seemingly ran away from home when Chesney reneged on an agreement not to tell Joseph's teachers that he was being bullied for the poor state of his uniform. Bernie found the boy with a large amount of money and learned that Clint Stubbins had agreed with Joseph to claim the cash reward by "returning" him, when he was never really missing and was being sheltered by his cousin Hope Stape in No.9's loft. Bernie was talked out of reporting Clint when he gave her half the cash to help Gemma and Chesney with their bills, despite the reward money having come from donations by well-wishers, including £3,000 from Dev. However, when Fiz Stape found Joseph's hiding place in her loft and confronted Hope, the girl lied that Bernie was the one who organised Joseph's absconsion. The police were called and arrested Bernie, while a disgusted Dev finished with her again. Upset that Bernie was being blamed, Joseph told the police the truth that it had all been Hope's idea, and the investigation was dropped. While she still faced a backlash for taking half of the appeal money, Gemma insisted that she be allowed to stay at No.5, overruling Chesney.
Sacked from the kebab shop, Bernie was re-hired a month later and extracted a pay rise from a contrite Dev, but refused to get back with him as he had so willingly assumed the worst of her.
Even with two jobs, Bernie wanted to contribute more towards the household bills and in August of that year she agreed to clean No.7 for Dev. That same month, she was mistaken for Fern Lindon when she was given her bag by mistake. Bernie and Fern met up and swapped their bags, but acknowledging the resemblance, Fern offered Bernie £200 to take her place on a speed awareness course. She agreed after Dev fired her for clumsily breaking Aadi's golf trophy, successfully impersonating Fern. Dev subsequently apologised to Bernie and they ended up in bed. They soon went public with their relationship, but Dev felt uncomfortable paying a woman he was seeing to clean his house and declined to renew the arrangement.
2022: Bernie meets her doppleganger
Bernie thought she'd made a friend in Fern. However, in October, when Fern offered to help her look for cleaning agencies to apply to, behind Bernie's back she stole her ID and clothing. Posing as Bernie, she used them to get a job cleaning a jewellery shop and stole the contents on her first day, asking Bernie to meet up beforehand so that she would have no alibi. Only Dev stood by Bernie when she was arrested; accused by Gemma and Chesney of inventing Fern to cover her crime, Bernie accepted Dev's invite to move into No.7 for a while. Remembering that Fern was a member of Ridgeley Park country club, Bernie visited the establishment where she met Fern's ex-husband, Howard, who claimed she had cleaned him out three months earlier and left him. He succeeded in luring Fern out of hiding by claiming he'd had a large lottery win, but he fell for her charms and was about to double-cross Bernie when a slip of the tongue gave his change of allegiance away to Gemma and Chesney, allowing them to trick Fern into meeting up with the jewellery. Fern was caught and arrested by the police, clearing Bernie of wrongdoing. Grateful to them for helping to clear her name, Bernie moved back in with Gemma and Chesney.
Dev was an avid golfer, and in February 2023 he introduced Bernie to the game. He was irritated when she easily beat him. When the ladies' golf captain offered her a scholarship, Bernie deliberately threw the trial so as not to make him jealous.
2023-2024: Paul's MND and finding Kit
A regular thorn in Bernie's side was Joseph's maternal grandmother, Linda Hancock. Linda lived in Portugal but kept an eye on Joseph, occasionally helping Gemma and Chesney out financially. Although Joseph was not a blood relation, Bernie treated him like her own and always felt that Linda was looking down her nose at them. In May 2023, when Gemma and Chesney were married, Linda put up most of the money. Bernie thought that Linda was lording it over the couple, and got into a food fight with her at the Chariot Square Hotel.
Paul almost missed the happy occasion after an argument with Gemma, but changed his mind at the last minute and walked his sister down the aisle. However, when he burst into tears during a speech, he confessed to Bernie and Gemma that he was terminally ill from motor neurone disease. Utterly bereft, the family rallied round him, with Bernie resolving to do everything she could for her son while she still had him. Sometimes she would make the wrong call; in June, she organised Paul's personal independence payment and a charity collection, making him feel that he was already being treated as incapable. He relented when he saw that his mother had her own emotional need to help him.
Bernie's spiritual beliefs played an important part in her coming to terms with Paul's death. Early on, she clashed with Billy Mayhew - now Paul's partner - after she tried crystal therapy on her son, which Billy thought was a pagan rite. She, in turn, rejected Billy's Christian faith. In July, she wound Dev up by moving photographs around at No.7 so that Sunita's spirit could see them, but he calmed down when he realised that it helped her believe that Paul's spirit would live on. Enthused by the therapy session with Paul, Bernie obtained an old massage table and took it up as a hobby. Todd Grimshaw was her first client.
In August, Bernie was surprised to learn that Paul's friend Shelly Rossington, who also had MND, was paying for her care by buying laptops on credit and selling them on, knowing that she would die before having to pay the money back. Behind Paul's back, Bernie offered to handle the sales for Shelly, accepting a cut of the profits for Paul. The arrangement continued until Shelly passed away, giving a deteriorating Paul enough money to install a stairlift at his and Billy's flat. When Paul and Billy were married in October, Bernie and Gemma helped him walk down the aisle.
2023: Bernie spends her last Christmas with Paul behind bars
Bernie's crimes caught up with her a few weeks later, when the police charged her with handling stolen goods having obtained photographic evidence of her collecting her cut of the laptop sales from Big Garth. Faced with the prospect of missing Paul's last Christmas, Bernie had an early celebration with the family before her trial. She pled guilty, and was sentenced to three months in jail, serving half.
After her release in January 2024, Bernie borrowed a campervan off a friend for an impromptu night away with her children. They ended up getting lost and stuck in the mud on a rugby pitch, and had to be rescued. Overhearing Billy in a panic on the phone about missing Benzo tablets, Bernie and Gemma were horrified to discover that Paul had an end-of-life plan. They tried to talk him out of it, to no avail. Although he eventually dropped the idea for other reasons, in the meantime Bernie dreaded him having a bad day that would tip him over the edge. When she found out that his PA Moses Ekundayo was late arriving, Bernie reported him to his bosses, demanding better care for her son. She felt guilty when Moses was suspended, and stood in until a replacement was appointed.
A long-absent Denny arrived on the scene in May, eager to see his son before he died. The family made it clear he wasn't welcome, and Bernie sent him packing when she found him trying to flog Paul's electric wheelchair for cash. Denny retorted that he was still a better parent than Bernie, reminding her of the son she'd given up. Stung by his words, Bernie decided to reach out to Zac again. With only the name Christopher Green to go by, Bernie started looking for her son, confiding only in Dev. Her search brought her to DC Kit Green, but he denied ever being adopted. Despite this, Kit terrorised Bernie, firstly by arresting her for being drunk and disorderly before letting her go, and then impounding her car for being one day late on its MOT. At Weatherfield Police Station, Bernie saw Kit celebrating his 31st birthday with his colleagues, enabling her to force a confession that he was Zodiac. Kit showed his bitterness towards Bernie for standing him up a decade ago, and told her that he neither wanted nor needed her in his life.
Bernie hoped that Kit would come round, but he continued to punish her. Without her blessing, he revealed his identity to Paul and Gemma, who turned on her for giving him away and robbing Paul of the chance of getting to know his brother. Paul brought the warring family back together by telling them that his dying wish was that they were reconciled, but when they were on their own Kit told Bernie that he was only going along with it for appearances' sake. In August, he boycotted a family dinner but gained a modicum of respect for Bernie when he witnessed her skilfully reviving Paul after he stopped breathing.
Paul passed away in September. Bernie was with him at his hospital bed when he died, but Billy didn't make it there on time and had to say goodbye to his husband over the phone. To spare Billy further grief, Bernie let him believe that Paul was still hanging on when in fact he had died moments earlier. After his passing, Bernie and Billy clashed over whether Paul should have a religious funeral, with Bernie adamant that her son would not have wished that. As his husband, Billy won out, so Bernie instead held a memorial rave in the street in Paul's name.
After the funeral, Bernie and Billy exchanged harsh words and Bernie blurted out the truth about Billy's goodbye to Paul. In her anger, she retrieved the ashes from Shuttleworth's Independent Funeral Services, and only handed over a small portion to Billy, intending for the rest to be sent up into space. Everyone made it clear that Bernie had gone too far, and she apologised to Billy. Billy was still grieving though, and when Bernie arranged a party at the Rovers to screen the video of Paul's ashes being sent into space, the drunken vicar interrupted the proceedings to tell everyone that he'd kissed Todd. He fell into a stupor in Brewery Lane, but was saved from freezing to death by Bernie after she had a dream about Paul alerting her to the danger he was in. Both of them realised that Paul would always be near to them and they finally reconciled their differing beliefs.
2024 to present: Engagement
While still grieving the loss of her son, Bernie had a proposal of marriage from Dev. She turned him down flat and finished with him, angry that he'd fired Chesney for the kebab shop failing a health inspection. There was further acrimony between the couple in January 2025, when Joseph made a hoax 999 call that prevented an ambulance from reaching Mason Radcliffe in time to save him after his stabbing. As Asha Alahan was one of the paramedics on the call, Dev refused to show Joseph leniency. He and Bernie were able to get past their disagreements though and when Dev proposed again, she accepted.
In May, Bernie drew a confession from Kit that when they were teenagers, he and Mick Michaelis committed arson against a convenience store, leading to the shopkeeper wife being badly burned. Mick was the one caught and sent to the STC while Kit kept quiet about his part in the crime. After killing PC Craig Tinker in a drink driving incident, Mick abducted Bernie in his van and threatened to harm her unless Kit helped him leave the country. However, with Bernie's help Kit was able to overpower Mick. Bernie also discovered that Mick's son Brody had possibly been fathered by Kit while Mick was at the STC. Appalled when Kit arrested the boy for smashing up Kit's flat, Bernie provided a false alibi for him. Desperate to learn if he was her grandson, Bernie took a hair sample from Brody's hat after he suffered an epileptic seizure and was taken to hospital. Kit had the hair DNA tested, and determined that Brody was his biological son. Bernie blurted out the truth to Brody who reacted badly to the revelation, spending his day drinking stolen booze. Bernie brought him back to No.7 and forced Aadi to take him in. She was the only one to stand by him when he was rejected by Mick and Kit, and the two began to form a relationship.
Keeping an eye on the twins in Dev's absence, Bernie found out that Aadi had arranged a robbery from the corner shop in order to use the insurance payout to pay off debts he'd amassed while Dev was in India. Finding out that he's used Brody as a patsy in the scheme, she promised not to report him. They were both taken aback when Dev returned from India early. When the insurance company refused to pay out, Bernie decided to cream off £6,000 from her and Dev's wedding fund in a hasty and cheap ceremony organised for two weeks' time. She was pleased when Dev's Aunty Rani, who had promised the couple £25,000 as a wedding gift, told her nephew that she didn't approve of her, and Dev stood up to her, even though it meant losing the money. On her wedding day, Bernie was held up after catching Brody burgling No.7, needing money to abscond to Alicante with his sister Joanie and Shanice to prevent them being split up in foster care. The delayed ceremony restarted but ended suddenly when Bernie collapsed with an asthma attack. Although the wedding didn't go ahead legally, Bernie and Dev exchanged vows in the hospital as a symbolic gesture. After confessing to Dev about Aadi's insurance scam and the reason for the rushed wedding, Bernie went on her honeymoon alone to allow him to build bridges with his son. They married properly at the registry office in October.
Bernie had taken Aadi and Asha under her wing, and did what she thought necessary to protect them. When Asha helped out Ryan Connor at a careers fair only to find out that the guest speaker was Naomi Giles, a woman who'd spat in her face while she performed her duties as a paramedic, Bernie changed Naomi's presentation slide to read "I'm a massive racist". Asha was forced to drop a police complaint against Naomi in return for Naomi not suing Bernie for defamation. When Asha attempted suicide, Bernie and Dev discovered the toll Asha's paramedic training was taking on her mental health. Bernie attempted to help her daughter-in-law by provoking Naomi into attacking her at the Viaduct Bistro, getting her arrested. However, a customer filmed Dev making a speech about the devastating effect Naomi had on his daughter, which Asha saw on social media, humiliating her.
Personality
 |
Relationships
|
Background information
|
Bernie was introduced in July 2019 as the mother of established character Gemma Winter (Dolly-Rose Campbell).
Jane Hazlegrove previously appeared in Coronation Street as Sue Clayton in 1985, making her the only actress to have played two regular characters in the programme. She is also one of only seven actors who have played a regular character in the programme and gone on to make a subsequent appearance in any separate role.
Appendices
List of addresses
| Address | Duration |
|---|---|
| Paul Robeson Estate | Unknown |
| 5 Coronation Street | 24th July 2019 to 24th January 2020 |
| Unknown address outside of Manchester | 24th January 2020 to 13th April 2020 |
| 5 Coronation Street | 13th April 2020 to 24th October 2022 |
| 7 Coronation Street | 24th October 2022 to 18th November 2022 |
| 5 Coronation Street | 18th November 2022 to 1st July 2024 |
| 7 Coronation Street | 1st July 2024 to 30th October 2024 |
| 5 Coronation Street | 30th October 2024 to 6th November 2024 |
| 7 Coronation Street | 6th November 2024 to present |
Employment history
| Role | Institution | Duration |
|---|---|---|
| Cleaner | St. Mary's Church | November 2019 |
| Assistant | Prima Doner | 13th April 2020 to 28th January 2022 |
| Waitress | Roy's Rolls | 19th October 2020 to present |
| Assistant | Prima Doner | 23rd February 2022 to present |
| Cleaner | Freelance | August to September 2022 |