Daisy Midgeley is the stepdaughter of Jenny Connor and co-owner of the Rovers Return.
In 2020, estranged from her parents, Daisy came to stay at the Rovers, reuniting with Jenny some years after they last saw each other. She ruffled feathers by encouraging Jenny's separation from her then-husband Johnny Connor and later engineering Ryan Connor and Alya Nazir's split. The following year, she set her cap at Daniel Osbourne and eventually won his heart, becoming engaged in 2022.
A social media influencer, Daisy found herself the target of obsessive stalker Justin Rutherford, culminating in Justin targetting her in an acid attack which struck Ryan Connor instead. Daisy subsequently formed an emotional attachment to Ryan and cheated on Daniel with him. When Daniel learned of their dalliance, he ended their engagement and threw her out, despite his son Bertie having come to see her as his mother.
In 2023, Daisy persuaded Jenny to use the money the late Stephen Reid had stolen from Underworld to buy the Rovers back from LS Waterford, with the pair of them becoming co-owners. Jenny confessed the scheme to Carla Barlow the following year, and Carla, taking possession of the pub, summarily fired Daisy. Though she subsequently reinstated her, it was only as a barmaid.
Biography[]
1996-2020: Early life[]
Daisy Midgeley was born in 1996. She was brought up in Middleton by her parents Mr and Christina Midgeley, and attended Roundtree High School.
Her parents separated when Daisy's father left Christina for Jenny Bradley sometime prior to 2008. Daisy ended up with her dad and Jenny when they married and had a son of their own, Tom. The years that followed were the happiest of Daisy's childhood, as she'd always wanted a younger sibling and was old enough to help care for the toddler. Christina, free of the responsibilities of motherhood, went to live with a friend in Holland, from where she would text Daisy a few times a year. Daisy realised that her mum had no real interest in her, but having bonded with Jenny, she easily adapted to life without her.
Daisy was bereft in 2013 when Tom tragically drowned in a paddling pool. Now sixteen, she gained the sympathy of her peers at school, but she was eventually turned on and accused of milking the tragedy. Daisy cut her supposed friends out of her life, relying more on her social media followers to boost her. Over time, she mastered the art of suppressing her feelings and painting a smile on her face.
Tom's death irreparably harmed Jenny's relationship with Daisy's father, and by 2015, they'd divorced with Jenny moving back to her native Weatherfield. Daisy was shut out by her dad in his time of grief, and when he married a woman named Marina and had another son, she became a reminder of a past he wanted to forget. With no family left to call her own, Daisy began travelling around the world to locations such as Thailand, grabbing what opportunities came her way.
2020-2021: Devil woman[]
In 2020, Daisy was working as a waitress at a yacht club when she set her sights on Lee, a wealthy patron with whom she became acquainted when she spilt wine over his expensive trousers (possibly deliberately). They were on their way to Edinburgh to see his children from a previous relationship in November of that year, and stopped off in Weatherfield so that Daisy could visit Jenny at her pub, the Rovers Return. However, their arrival came during a tense dispute between Jenny and her husband Johnny Connor. Johnny was awaiting arrest for his part in a 1980 warehouse robbery and the assault of security guard Grant Newsome, and deciding that the best way to protect Jenny from any fall-out was divorce - something she was adamantly against - he was being uncharacteristically boorish towards her in an effort to turn her against him. By the time the police came to arrest Johnny, his antics had paid off and Jenny demanded that they lock him up and throw away the key.
Helping her stepmother through this difficult time, Daisy moved into the Rovers while Lee went on to Edinburgh alone. Not realising that Johnny's behaviour was all for show, she encouraged Jenny to end her marriage and was left infuriated when she ultimately decided to stand by her husband. She kept trying to make Jenny see sense, but when she overstepped the mark and tried to set her stepmother up with someone, she was told off for meddling. By February 2021, Daisy was a permanent resident at the Rovers and working behind the bar as Lee had dumped her by text and reconciled with his ex. Daisy railed against the fact that she had lost a life of wealth and easy privilege due to the split.
In March, Daisy was signed up by Rovers barman Sean Tully to the Double Glammy pyramid scheme, selling beauty products in bulk. Daisy was in her element as a saleswoman and made a good living from the scheme, unfazed by the moral ramifications. As part of the job, she charmed people such as Carol Hill into becoming agents, but when Carol was unable to shift her gear and Daisy refused to release her from her contract, Carol relapsed into drugs and almost died. Without Daisy's support, Sean gave all the details about the pyramid scheme to journalist Daniel Osbourne, who wrote an article exposing Double Glammy, essentially shutting it down. With her income stream cut off, Daisy sacked Sean from the Rovers behind Jenny's back, and the other staff downed tools in protest. A furious Jenny sorted matters out, but Daisy managed to hang onto her job.
Around the same time, while Johnny was serving his sentence at Highfield Prison, Daisy guessed that Jenny had been unfaithful with Ronnie Bailey. She tried blackmailing Ronnie to sell Double Glammy products, but stopped when Jenny came down hard on her, threatening to kick her out. She relented when a tearful Daisy revealed that her family had virtually cut her off and she had nowhere else to go. Johnny later found out about Jenny's tryst anyway and put the Rovers up for sale, ending his marriage to Jenny. Daisy persuaded Jenny that they ought to buy the pub as partners, but after the Double Glammy drama, Jenny cut her out of the partnership, buying the Rovers on her own.
Daisy needed something new to occupy her. In June, finding out that Ryan Connor's relationship with Alya Nazir had hit the rocks, she encouraged him to take up his DJ work again, coming up with the idea of a mobile pub and DJ service. They went ahead against opposition from Alya who started to fear that Daisy had set her sights on Ryan. When a gig was cancelled, Daisy got Ryan drunk and he spent the night in ber bed, though he didn't sleep with her. Daisy spitefully made sure Alya found out, hinting that more happened than was the case, and Alya finished with Ryan.
When Ryan landed a DJ gig in Val d'Isère, Daisy was keen to join him. However, Ryan was uncomfortable when she proclaimed themselves as a couple and flaunted their relationship in front of Alya. When his ski slot turned out to be a kids' daytime gig in a hamlet some miles away, Daisy was angrily disappointed. Her attentions moved to Daniel Osbourne when she overheard that his mother Denise had gifted him a £400,000 house. She flirted with him, Daniel fell for it and she and Ryan finished. Jenny felt sorry for Alya and annoyed with her stepdaughter's behaviour, told her that Daisy had exaggerated what occurred on the night that Ryan was drunk. Alya revealed all in front of Ryan and Daniel, who was thus warned off the toxic girl.
2021-2022: A reformed character?[]
In October, Johnny died rescuing Jenny from drowning during a sinkhole disaster and sewer collapse in the street. Jenny took her anger out on Daisy, feeling that he wouldn't have been in danger if they hadn't split up. Daniel comforted Daisy, but their renewed friendship was threatened when Daisy used photos of herself with his infant son Bertie to boost her social media profile. She was pleased when he turned up to support her at Johnny's funeral and they started seeing other in secret. Oblivious, Jenny tried to matchmake Daisy with Weatherfield County FC's new striker Ashley Hardcastle, making Daniel jealous. He also got annoyed when Daisy received free clothes for Bertie from a clothing company who thought she was a social influencer as well as the child's mother and she didn't correct them. Their passionate row ended up with them sleeping together but they rowed again when Daniel inferred that Daisy was ill-educated and she ended up back with Ashley, even though his football talk bored her.
2021: Daisy sets out her stall
Daisy was with Ashley, but it was Daniel she really wanted; when Max Turner sabotaged the lyrics on Daniel's laptop for a Christmas school choir who then sang a slanderous carol about him, Daisy spoke up for him to the assembled crowd. She finished with Ashley who proved to be boring and vain, but by that point Daniel was in a relationship with Lydia Chambers. In February 2022, when Daniel witnessed Max falling down the stairs in his flat, Daisy checked on Daniel to make sure he was okay, and they kissed. Daniel realised he still had feelings for Daisy and finished with Lydia, allowing the couple to restart their relationship.
Another spanner in the works appeared when Daniel's ex Nicky Wheatley returned to the area, searching for a teaching job. Daniel assured Daisy she had no reason to be concerned and got Nicky taken on as a trainee at Weatherfield High, where Daniel was teaching English. Nicky assured Daisy that she wasn't a homewrecker, but she was suspicious, especially when she discovered that deputy head Orla Crawshaw thought Daniel and Nicky were an item. Trying to find Nicky a boyfriend of her own, Daisy engineered a meeting between her and Ashley. She was shocked when Ashley recognised Nicky as a sex worker whose services he once used. Beth Sutherland also recognised Nicky and mistakenly told Daisy that Daniel was once a client of hers. When Max overheard them arguing and as a result found Nicky's old advert online, he passed the pictures round the school, and she was fired. Daniel finished with Daisy, accusing her of being behind the leak. By May, Daniel had learned that Max was the culprit and with Nicky leaving the area, the two got back together.
Jenny had occasional thoughts about moving on from the Rovers, and Daisy was waiting in the wings to replace her as landlady. In June, she planned a cocktail tutorial at the Rovers with mixologist Jim Fizz. That same month, she and Jenny tried to cheer up a jobless Leo Thompkins by sampling his awful-tasting home brew, and switched the pumps with Newton & Ridley ale so as not to hurt his feelings, which backfired when he took the customers' compliments at face value and considered making it his occupation. When Jenny and Leo planned to elope to Canada together in September, Daisy became desperate to be named manager of the Rovers, but the move was cancelled when Leo apparently dumped Jenny and went on his own.
In October, Daniel suggested to Daisy that she moved in with him. She had reservations when Bertie called her "mummy", causing a momentary fallout with his auntie Beth, but after a chat with Jenny she resolved to be committed to Daniel. The two had a further misunderstanding though when they prematurely gave up the corner shop flat to Paul Foreman and Dee-Dee Bailey, with Daisy expecting that they were moving into Daniel's free house, and Daniel thinking they were moving into the Rovers. With new tenants in the former, and Glenda Shuttleworth moved into the latter, they had to live at 1 Coronation Street, annoying Tracy McDonald by their presence.
2022-2023: Stalking ordeal and acid attack[]
In December, Daisy's mind was occupied when she found a lump in her breast. Daniel offered his support, but his memories of Sinead's death from cancer affected him badly and he turned at up Daisy's doctor's appointment drunk. They were reconciled when she read an article that he had written about her and the way she had helped him turn his life around. At one hospital appointment, she met a man who was there to support his mother who had advanced cancer, and was grateful for his kind words.
After Daisy's lump was shown to be benign, Daniel decided to propose and bought a ring to be opened up in a Christmas present, but No.1 was burgled, and the ring was stolen. Ken Barlow gave Daniel another one which was a family heirloom to use in his proposal, and a delighted Daisy accepted. However, Daniel disliked her using her wedding plans to try and get discounts from her social media followers and they argued over it. He was forced to apologise when Amy Barlow pointed out that some of her posts were raising awareness of breast cancer.
The following January, Daisy started to plan her lavish day. She went to a licenced victualler's event where she flirted with trendy DJ Teativo, determined to secure him for the wedding, but she got drunk and posted a picture to social media of her wrapped around the good-looking man. Hung-over the next day, she hurriedly deleted it, but Daniel had already seen it and she had to pretend that the performer was gay. She started to receive flowers with cards signed by "Justin" that she assumed were from the DJ and had to try and hide what was going on from her fiancé. Annoyed at his persistence, Daisy named and shamed him on social media, only for the DJ to lose work and visit her, proving he wasn't called Justin. Daniel also found out that she had flirted with the man who wasn't gay at all, but told her he wasn't angry as he accepted that she was a natural flirt.
Daisy's real stalker introduced himself to her in the Rovers - Justin Rutherford, the man she met at the hospital the previous month. Justin was suffering mental delusions, thinking that the two were pledged to each other for life. Despite being blocked time and again, Justin continued to send Daisy messages. His harassment continued as he followed Daisy to a wedding fayre posing as her fiancé and got a job as a courier delivering to the street. She and Daniel informed the police, but PC Craig Tinker advised them that there was little they could do.
In February, Justin got hold of Daisy's phone number and started to bombard her with messages. She and Daniel made another complaint to the police where PC Scott inferred that her strong social media presence was to blame, but he also started to follow her online himself. Getting more and more pressured, Daisy snapped when she saw Justin with flowers on Victoria Street and assaulted him, only to find he was on his way to Shuttleworth's Independent Funeral Services where his recently deceased mother was in repose. Justin reported her for assault and Jess Heywood took her to Weatherfield Police Station for questioning where she was shocked to witness PC Scott's attitude towards her. She ensured he was given an official reprimand. Justin dropped his complaint, saying he was willing to give Daisy another chance to show her love for him, so she threatened him with a stalking order. Her words had no effect when he acted as the delivery man for some wedding cake samples.
Daisy's problems increased when her mother Christina turned up from Amsterdam, having heard about the wedding via Daniel. Daniel engineered a reconciliation between the two women where Christina admitted she was a rotten mother as she never really wanted the role, but nevertheless she was proud of her daughter. Daisy grew upset at the bickering between Christina and Jenny and her mother decided to leave the area to keep the peace. She returned in March with a new young boyfriend in tow who was none other than Justin. A horrified Daisy got her mother to drop him, and fearful that he had found out the date of the wedding from her mother, she brought the event forward. Justin countered by telling all her sponsors about the assault and they all pulled out of her wedding arrangements. Daniel was enraged when Justin let himself into an unlocked No.1 to see Daisy and assaulted him on the eve of a protection order hearing. Justin's appearance in the courtroom in a neck brace gained the court's sympathy and the order was refused.
To get rid of him once and for all, Daisy provoked Justin into attacking her and he was quickly arrested by Craig. Her sponsors agreed to supply her again, but she was horrified to learn that Justin had been released on bail. Her wedding woes increased as Tracy tried to wind her up by insisting on being bridesmaid in return for supplying the flowers, and Glenda pushed for her to be booked as the wedding singer. The final straw was when Christina invited two of Daisy's bitchy school friends to her hen do. After putting up with their jibes, she threw them out and uninvited her mother who retorted telling her that all weddings in their family ended up being cursed.
Daisy had maintained her friendship with Ryan. On the day of her wedding, he acted as her chauffeur and was at the Rovers to collect her when a deranged Justin attacked the bride by throwing a vial of acid at her. Ryan stepped in caught most of the noxious liquid in his face. Screaming in pain, he was helped by a panicked Daisy and eventually taken to hospital, where he undertook an agonising emergency skin graft. Daisy saw Justin waiting in the hospital car park and managed to entrap him before the police arrived and arrested him. Everyone was disappointed when Justin pleaded not guilty as they wanted an end to the matter.
In the aftermath, Daisy tried to bring Ryan together with events promoter Crystal Hyde, who had previously offered him a DJ job in Ibiza, but the club promoter made it clear to her that she wanted nothing more to do with him due to his injuries. To keep Ryan's spirits up, Daisy sent him texts posing as Crystal. The ruse worked, but Daisy became unable to break it off, worried about the effect on Ryan's morale. In April, she tried to reduce his reliance on "Crystal" by giving him her own support, but he was devastated when he overheard her saying she just felt sorry for him. Meanwhile, teaching at the Greenford Secure Training Centre, Daniel lent Daisy's spare phone to inmate Max Turner when he discovered that recording videos had a therapeutic effect on him, unaware it was the handset Daisy used to pose as Crystal. Max had possession of it when Ryan left a voice message saying he was feeling really unwell. Alerted by him, Ryan was rescued by Daniel when he collapsed with an infection in his skin graft and was hospitalised. Daniel thus found out about the catfishing but was assured when Daisy told him it was only done to support Ryan.
In May, Justin was found guilty of assaulting Daisy, but a separate trial had to take place for the acid attack. Desperate to keep her mentally ill brother out of jail, Karen Rutherford overheard an argument between Daisy and Carla Barlow about Daisy's history of manipulating men and passed the information onto the defence as the trial began. Ryan ultimately took the witness box where he was given a hard time by the defence barrister. Afterwards, Daisy had to calm him down and in doing so shared a kiss with him. Justin was found guilty and remanded for sentencing. Almost immediately afterwards, Ryan read a message on Crystal's website saying she'd had an accident and was in a coma. When a text from her then came through, he realised he'd been catfished. He didn't suspect Daisy, but when during a passing conversation Max mentioned having possession of Daisy's phone when he collapsed, Ryan realised the true identity of his cat-fisher.
After he, Jenny and Carla made their feelings clear about what she did, Ryan himself was prepared to forgive her until he saw her celebrating a possible flat move with Daniel to Didsbury and accused her of moving on quickly from the shame of what she did. Nevertheless, he didn't tell Daniel about their kiss, not wanting to harm Bertie by splitting up a family.
2023 to present: Relationship with Ryan Connor[]
In July, after a period convalescing in Ireland, Ryan returned in a better frame of mind and made his peace with Daisy. Unbeknown to Daisy, Ryan was injecting steroids to help his bodybuilding. Feeling rejected when Daisy moved in with Daniel to the builders' flat, he started making money online posting nude photos on Ovidz website, injecting steroids in order to bulk up and using a filter to hide his scars. A troubled Daisy found out about the Ovidz in September. When his face filter failed on a video call allowing him to be identified through social media, Ryan was distraught, badly overreacting in front of Daisy when accidentally sprayed with pop by Gav Adetiba. He agreed to give a talk at the STC about victims of violence, and Daisy convinced him that the man who gave it was the real Ryan and not some "juicehead". This gave Ryan the strength to close his livestream account.
Daisy and Ryan grew closer and in October they had sex, though Daisy almost immediately regretted the act. Things grew uncomfortable when the two of them both began work at the Viaduct Bistro, Jenny having sold the Rovers to LS Waterford due to financial pressures, but they got worse when Ryan's flatmate Lauren Bolton worked out that they had had a fling and blackmailed Ryan for £1,000 to pay off someone pressuring her for money. Daisy warned her to keep away but instead she got Daniel to give her one-to-one tutoring, wanting to resit her GCSEs. Ryan reported Lauren for being underage when he found out that she too was making Ovidz videos, and Daisy got Lauren to back down on her blackmailing and admitted to Ryan that she wanted to be with him.
Daisy was jealous when Crystal re-entered Ryan's life, after she watched his livestream and apologised for dumping him. When he received a job offer from a gym in Manchester at the same time Crystal offered to get him a residency at the club she was opening in Glasgow, he recorded a practice interview. However, he also accidentally taped a conversation between him and Daisy about their one-night-stand, which Simon Barlow found and passed on to Daniel to whom Ryan had recently confessed his love for Daisy. Satisfied that Ryan would be out of their lives once he'd moved to Glasgow, Daniel was perturbed to hear him talking about taking the gym job and told the establishment that Ryan was a steroid user. They rescinded the job offer and Ryan soon worked out that Daniel was behind it. Daisy's guilt compelled her to admit to Daniel about her and Ryan. He admitted to spiking the job and harsh words were exchanged. He threw her out and she moved in with Jenny into Rita Tanner's flat. Carla intervened between Ryan and Crytal when she found out that he slept with Daisy and brought the two back together, and as Ryan headed for Glasgow he left a saddened Daisy behind.
In December, Jenny borrowed the late Stephen Reid's laptop and found a password protected file on it which was last amended on the day he died. She was suspicious that it contained the details of where he put nearly £250k stolen from Underworld factory, but the police were unable to crack the password. Finding out that Stephen kept a journal, Daisy took note when she saw Audrey Roberts bin the item and managed to retrieve it for her own use. Within it, she found a clue to the password which revealed Stephen's bank account and over £247,000 - enough to buy the Rovers back from Waterford. With persuading from Daisy, Jenny agreed to use the funds on the condition that they eventually paid Carla back. Lying to the residents that they'd obtained a bank loan, their offer for the pub was accepted, and it re-opened in time for New Year's Eve.
The year had a bittersweet ending for Daisy as when she went over to Daniel's flat hoping to make up with him, she saw him with his ex-girlfriend Bethany Platt, having slept with her. Daniel firmly rejected Daisy, saying he'd had enough of her drama. She was delighted in March 2024 when Ryan returned from Glasgow, telling her that his relationship with Crystal hadn't worked out as he was thinking of her all the time. The couple finally got together properly, and Daisy gave Ryan a job at the Rovers.
Daisy was often at loggerheads with Bethany. Writing for Chit-Chat magazine, Bethany submitted an article about Daisy catfishing Ryan, albeit with the names of the article's subjects changed. Daisy thought she and Daniel had a chance of reconciliation and was devastated when the article was published, easily recognising herself in the story. Forcing Daniel to admit that he helped Bethany with it, his lack of warning about the article caused a final breach between him and Daisy. She got her own back on Bethany by threatening legal action against the magazine who cut of all ties with the journalist.
Jenny and Daisy were running the Rovers as partners, but Daisy was getting increasingly annoyed at Jenny vetoing her attempts to boost business with special offers. Daisy took it upon herself to negotiate with Newton & Ridley for the brewery to supply the Rovers again. However, her expensive spending habits soon drew Bethany's suspicions. When Bethany overheard her and Jenny arguing about taking money from an account, and also found out that Stephen kept a journal, she put two and two together. A dinner party was arranged at the Rovers to give Bethany a chance to search the pub for evidence. She found the journal and, realising where the money came from to buy the Rovers, she confronted Daisy but her accusations weren't taken seriously. Amused by Bethany's behaviour, Ryan passed the accusation to Carla. Carla saw that Jenny's nerves were shredded and, after witnessing a confrontation between stepmother and stepdaughter, forced a confession from her. Ryan stuck with Daisy when she convinced him that she was genuinely contrite, and talked Carla out of telling the police. Instead she claimed ownership of the pub, retaining Jenny as manager but sacking Daisy on the spot, though within weeks she was back behind the bar to help out at the understaffed pub.
Relations between Daisy and Bethany thawed in May of that year when they found a similarity in what they went through with Justin and Nathan Curtis respectively.
Personality[]
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Relationships[]
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Background information[]
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First and last lines[]
"I'm really sorry, Jenny." (First line)
Appendices[]
List of addresses[]
| Address | Duration |
|---|---|
| Rovers Return Inn | 13th January 2021 to 28th October 2022 |
| 1 Coronation Street | 28th October 2022 to 23rd August 2023 |
| 19a Victoria Street | 23rd August 2023 to 13th December 2023 |
| 10a Coronation Street | 13th December 2023 to 1st January 2024 |
| Rovers Return Inn | 1st January 2024 onwards |
Employment history[]
| Role | Institution | Duration |
|---|---|---|
| Waitress | Yacht club | Unknown |
| Barmaid | Rovers Return Inn | November 2020 to 26th September 2023 |
| Salesperson | Double Glammy | 22nd March to 25th June 2021 |
| Waitress | Viaduct Bistro | 18th October to 6th November 2023 |
| Co-owner | Rovers Return Inn | 29th December 2023 to 3rd May 2024 |
| Barmaid | Rovers Return Inn | 24th May 2024 onwards |