Debbie Webster is the property tycoon sister of Kevin Webster.
Debbie originally moved to Coronation Street as a fifteen-year-old in 1984. At her young age, Debbie was more interested in seeing her boyfriend Dazz Isherwood than doing her school work, which led to her underachieving in her exams. After leaving school, she was taken on at Jim's Cafe and not long afterwards, her father Bill Webster married Elaine Prior and the family (minus Kevin) moved to Southampton.
Debbie had a long absence from Weatherfield, during which time she knuckled down and found success as a property developer. In 2020, she schemed with her ex-partner Ray Crosby to redevelop the street, successfully buying up many of the properties. They got as far as evicting the tenants before the planning application was rescinded due to Ray bribing the committee chairperson. Turning against Ray when his sexual assault of Faye Windass was revealed, Debbie made him sign over his business empire, including the Viaduct Bistro and the Chariot Square Hotel, before betraying him to the police.
Emerging from her dealings with Ray as a very wealthy woman, Debbie ran into financial trouble in 2022 and sold the bistro to her business partners Leanne Battersby and Nick Tilsley. She remains close to Kevin and her nephew Jack and tries to look out for them, and is currently in a relationship with Ronnie Bailey.
Biography[]
1968-1985: Childhood[]
Debbie was born on 7th September 1968 and grew up in Weatherfield with her parents Bill and Alison and brother Kevin. Four years older than Debbie, Kevin was protective of her and would cover for her with their parents when she misbehaved.
Following Alison's death from colon cancer when she was eleven years old, Debbie became part-schoolgirl, part-housewife, frequently skivvying for Bill and Kevin. The resulting pressures caused her to mature into a spunky and independent young woman, itching to get away and lead her own life.
1984: Following her mother's death Debbie found herself swamped with responsibility to care for Bill and Kevin
In 1984, Elsie Tanner decided to sell her home of 11 Coronation Street and, as the house neighboured the builder's yard where he had set up his joinery business Bill Webster Property Repairs, Bill was keen to buy it. Enthusiastic about the move, Debbie turned up to have a look at the house weeks before they were due to move in and her pushy attitude put her on the wrong side of Elsie's daughter Linda Cheveski who chucked her out. On the day that the Webster trio officially moved in, the Pub Olympics was being held between the Rovers Return and The Flying Horse, and Debbie insisted on watching Kevin's band perform at the Rovers.
Bill hoped that his daughter's feistiness would translate into academic success however she ended up failing her exams with two CSE 4s, two 5s and one unclassified. Debbie intended to leave school without any qualifications but Bill insisted that she stay and resit her exams. When Debbie made Bill see that he heaped too many responsibilities on her at home and that she never had time to commit to her studies he agreed to let her leave school if she found a job and she was taken on at Jim's Cafe almost straightaway.
Bill's protective side surfaced again when Debbie met up with Dazz Isherwood, her old neighbour, who Bill had barred from seeing Debbie as he would let ride his motorbike. Bill gave Debbie an ultimatum to drop Dazz or return to school but Debbie ignored him and hung out with Dazz and his biker friends. When Dazz crashed his motorbike while riding with Debbie and Debbie escaped with a bruised leg, Bill threatened Dazz with violence, trying to scare him off Debbie, but while this didn't work they split up anyway as Dazz got fed up with Debbie cramping his style and dumped her for Denise Edgeley, who was older.
When Bill became friendly with Elaine Prior at the end of the year, Debbie helped them get time alone together by getting Kevin out of the house. Kevin didn't like Elaine muscling in on the cosy family atmosphere but Debbie liked them together and was pleased when they decided to marry and move to Southampton, particularly when Elaine offered her a job at her new salon. The wedding took place in January 1985 and Bill, Elaine and Debbie moved immediately to Southampton, while Kevin stayed behind in Coronation Street and eventually raised a family there.
1985-2019: Missing years[]
The Websters had moved again, to Germany, prior to the birth of Debbie's half-brother Carl in 1986. By 1995, Debbie had left home, and by 2001 she was back in the UK. She kept in contact with Kevin, letting him stay with her that year when he was reeling from the news that Sally was marrying Danny Hargreaves. When Sophie went missing in 2010, Kevin rang Debbie to find out if she'd turned up there, but she hadn't.
Debbie wanted children, but business always got in the way. She made a fortune in property and in 2011, she purchased a villa in Turkey, where she lived for the next few years while maintaining her business portfolio in the UK. It was during this period that she formed an association with wealthy hotelier Ray Crosby, and in 2017 the couple formed the business partnership "Hexappoint Properties", buying up sites to develop. They also dated at one point, though they had broken it off by 2019. With Ray proving to be unscrupulous, both in business and with women, Debbie kept him on a tight leash.
In October of that year, Debbie's Aunty Vi died and she returned to Weatherfield to tell Kevin and attend the will reading. In her first moments back on the cobbles, she had to face down Abi Franklin, Kevin's friend and employee at Webster's Autocentre, who mistook her for Kevin's date. Abi decided with her trademark tact that Debbie needed scaring off and warned her about hurting Kevin, which brought out Debbie's bolshy side. Left £200,000 by Aunty Vi, Debbie offered the sum to Kevin, but he turned it down. Sophie, Debbie's niece, persuaded her dad to accept the money and share it out between his children. She then took Debbie's advice to spend her money recklessly, leaving the street to go travelling in Asia.
2020-2021: Conspiring with Ray Crosby[]
In 2020, Debbie and Ray formulated plans to re-develop the south side of Coronation Street and the surrounding area, replacing the houses and businesses with a new luxury apartment block, Victoria Tower. Debbie felt justified in that she was attracting industry to a deprived area and raising the house prices of the remaining properties, including Kevin's.
In the early months of the year, while Debbie concentrated on finding investors for the project, Ray handled the purchases, buying up all the properties they needed with orders from Debbie to play fair, but to keep their plans secret from the neighbours for as long as possible. In August, she moved into 13 Coronation Street as a guest, telling Kevin that she had business to transact in the area.
Debbie continued to feud with Abi, now Kevin's partner. She falsely accused her of carrying on with Peter Barlow behind Kevin's back, having seem them together and got the wrong impression. Three months later, Abi saw Debbie skiving when she was supposed to be in a business meeting and got Kevin to investigate. Debbie made out that she was homeless, penniless and jobless, leading Abi to soften, mentioning that Kevin lost Webster's Autocentre to blackmail from Ray. Furious at her brother's treatment, Debbie took a more active role in the purchases, egging on Sally to move away from the street to escape abusive next-door neighbour Geoff Metcalfe. Sally took the bait and put No.4 up for sale to Ray's intermediary Roxy Hackland. However, Abi recognised Roxy leaving No.4 and smelled a rat. She found proof of Ray's plans in the Viaduct Bistro office and used it to stir the neighbours into action. Debbie attempted to discredit Abi, a former drug addict, by planting heroin in Kevin's car for him to find and think she was using again. However, Abi managed to persuade Kevin that she was innocent.
In December, Debbie and Ray were granted pre-planning permission for the development. By now, they had mopped up most of the properties, and with Ray going public with his plans at a press launch at the bistro, they ordered the demolition of Nuttall's Brewery to get ahead of the neighbours' mission to get the historic building listed. Kevin got the council to issue a temporary stop order, but Ray's lawyers were already trying to oppose it, having been forewarned by Debbie. Abi pointed out to Kevin that only his sister knew what they were planning with the order. Debbie admitted to her angry brother that she was Ray's business partner, and was ordered to move out of No.13.
More setbacks followed. When Ray attempted to rape Faye Windass, Faye refused to report the matter to the police but her brother Gary, previously amenable, tore up the contract to sell Underworld. Debbie had lost a vital piece of real estate, leading her to limit Ray's role in the project and announce a scaled-down plan involving just the demolition of the houses. In January 2021, the planning application was granted and the tenants were evicted from their homes. Debbie was aghast to find out that Ray had bribed the panel's chairperson and even more so when Ray was arrested for the attempted rape of Faye. When Abi obtained taped evidence of the bribe which made its way to social media, the planning application was rescinded.
In order to salvage something, Debbie schemed with Ray's solicitor Miles Ingham by offering to spirit Ray away to a new life in Turkey on condition he signed over his business empire to her; in reality, she planned to hand him over to the police. Debbie hid her part in Ray's escape by telling Abi she murdered him in self-defence, but Abi struggled to deal with the knowledge and confessed to Kevin who ordered his sister to come clean to the police. Meanwhile, Miles proved loyal to his old friend and told Ray what Debbie was up to. Furious at the betrayal, Ray followed her to the bistro at night and locked her and Kevin in the walk-in fridge to freeze to death. They survived several days in there, becoming closer again in the process, until Abi rescued them. Their timely escape enabled the police to catch up with Ray at Manchester Airport and arrest him for attempted murder.
2021 to present: At the bistro and Chariot Square[]
Debbie's new portfolio included the Viaduct Bistro and the Chariot Square, Drawbridge, Riverlands, Lancastrian, Roundwell, Waterway and Welton hotels. Forced by Abi, she arranged to sell the Coronation Street properties back to their former owners, but she was left with a few where the owners were either uninterested or couldn't afford it, namely Audrey's salon and the flat above, Street Cars, and the Nuttall's Brewery building.
Having taken on Ray's debts along with the assets, Debbie was eager to sell the properties which weren't making money, but offloading them wasn't easy; Audrey Roberts was only interested in leasing the salon from Debbie, though she persuaded Tyrone Dobbs to buy the flat. In July 2022, Toyah Habeeb stole the brewery keys for Spider Nugent to turn it into a squat but, alerted by Kirk Sutherland who heard noises from the supposedly empty site, Debbie prevented his friends from taking occupancy.
In August 2021, Leanne Battersby and Nick Tilsley put in an offer to buy the bistro, which had been theirs some years earlier. Debbie rejected a low offer, and the two parties played a cat and mouse game of changing offers in which Debbie involved an innocent Ronnie Bailey. They finally agreed on a price for a 50/50 partnership and the two women entered into a business relationship which turned into mutual respect for each other’s abilities. Debbie dined with Ronnie to apologise to him, and started to see him romantically, upsetting Jenny Connor who had previously turned him down.
Debbie's main priorities were the Chariot Square and the Viaduct Bistro. In Coronation Street, she enjoyed a healthy rivalry with Speed Daal in Victoria Street, responding to Zeedan Nazir's tasting evening by having one of her own on the same night, and also pinching Navid, Zeedan's head chef, for the event. Zeedan retaliated by hiring a food van and parking it outside the bistro. In October, the bistro's "Horror Nation Street" attraction was held in Brewery Lane, although the promo was overshadowed when on the same night, rainfall combined with the pressures from the nearby sinkhole caused an adjacent sewer collapse, claiming the life of Johnny Connor. As part of the previous year's re-development scheme, Ray had paid for the sinkhole at No.8 to be engineered; in light of Johnny's death, Debbie visited Ray and produced enough evidence to convince the police that he could be charged with manslaughter, but offered to forget about it if he confessed to the lesser charge of sexual assault on Faye. Ray acquiesced and Faye, in prison for assaulting Adam Barlow thinking he was Ray, was freed on bail pending an appeal.
Debbie still didn't trust Abi. When she found out that Abi had brought a gun into No.13 to use on Corey Brent, her son Seb Franklin's killer, Debbie demanded she call off her wedding to Kevin and left the family for good. Abi told Kevin everything and, prompted by her stepson Jack, he forgave her, and the wedding went ahead with Debbie's blessing.
In 2022, Debbie was still paying the price for Ray's shady business practices. In July of that year, Ed Bailey was electrocuted by bad wiring at one of her hotels and ended up in hospital. Debbie discovered that Ray neither renewed the wiring certificate nor the professional indemnity insurance. With Aggie demanding compensation for loss of earnings for her husband, Debbie's accountant recommended bankruptcy before Ray's debts overwhelmed her. The Baileys accepted an offer of £30,000 which Debbie somehow had to find. She tried theme nights at the bistro but the first one proved disastrous. At her wits' end, Debbie offered Ryan Connor money to stage a break-in on the premises for the insurance proceeds. On a bistro casino theme night, Ryan killed the electrics and Debbie vacated the punters to the Rovers, giving him time to empty the safe. He handed the cash over to her but was caught when the CCTV was shown to be on a different circuit and had captured his movements.
To protect herself, Debbie refused to help Ryan when he was arrested, which resulted in him being ostracised by the community and Ronnie finishing with Debbie when he guessed what had happened. After he was sentenced to community service, Debbie compensated Ryan for not ratting her out by giving him the job of head waiter at the bistro and letting him live at the Chariot Square rent-free. She would play a somewhat motherly role in Ryan's life afterwards, especially when he was coping with emotional trauma following an acid attack in March 2023. Ed was also forgiving, agreeing to work for Debbie when she offered him a job as a handyman at the Chariot Square in April 2024. Debbie eventually admitted to Nick and Leanne that she was all but bankrupt. Hearing how honest she had been, Ronnie resumed their relationship.
In November 2022, Debbie offered to sell her share of the bistro to Nick and Leanne. They were interested, but when a potential purchaser pulled out after their surveyor found wet rot in the premises, Debbie hid the revelation from her business partners and accepted a low offer she'd previously rejected. Leanne almost came to blows with Debbie when she found out they had been conned.
2023: Debbie persuades Ronnie to use insider trading to get ahead in business
Ronnie was also a property developer, founding EdiRon Developments with Ed in 2023. While Debbie wasn't officially involved in the business, she helped Ronnie financially in August of that year when she got wind that LS Waterford was planning a buyout of Newton & Ridley and persuaded him to use his profits to invest in the brewery shares in expectation of a windfall.
Personality[]
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Relationships[]
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Background information[]
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Kevin's rarely-mentioned sister was introduced along with Bill in 1984 with the intention that the Websters would be staying with the programme for at least five years, but she was written out less than a year later, in January 1985, so that she would leave with Bill as Peter Armitage quit the series at the end of his initial contract. While executive producer Bill Podmore managed to keep Kevin in the show, he felt it would be unrealistic for Bill to move away without either of his children.
In 2020, it was reported that Devaney would be reintroduced after a brief return in 2019. This was confirmed in August that year. The story details were given that Debbie would be back to support her brother, Kevin. The character's return was broadcast on 26th August 2020.
Appendices[]
List of addresses[]
| Address | Duration |
|---|---|
| 11 Coronation Street | 9th July 1984 to 9th January 1985 |
| Southampton | January 1985 to unknown date |
| Turkey | September 2011 to August 2020 |
| 13 Coronation Street | August 2020 to December 2020 |
Employment history[]
| Role | Institution | Duration |
|---|---|---|
| Owner | Chariot Square Hotel | February 2021 to present |
| Owner | Drawbridge Hotel | February 2021 to present |
| Owner | Riverlands Hotel | February 2021 to present |
| Owner | The Lancastrian Hotel | February 2021 to present |
| Owner | The Roundwell | February 2021 to present |
| Owner | The Waterway | February 2021 to present |
| Owner | The Welton | February 2021 to present |
| Owner | Viaduct Bistro | February to 16th August 2021 |
| Owner | Furniture Shop | February 2021 to present |
| Owner | Audrey's | February 2021 to present |
| Owner | Street Cars | February 2021 to present |
| Co-owner | Viaduct Bistro | 16th August 2021 to 27th November 2022 |
First and last lines[]
"In here." (First line, to Ivy Tilsley)