Maureen Taylor is the overbearing mother of Mary Taylor and grandmother of Jude Appleton - who she forced Mary to abandon.
Having given birth to Mary in 1970, Maureen feared that her daughter would eventually leave - like her husband had - and sought to control her by chipping away at her self-confidence by imposing many restrictions on her life and putting her down with nasty insults. The final straw for Mary came in 1984 when she was raped by a local minister while babysitting his children, Maureen blamed her for the incident and covered up the subsequent birth of her son, Jude, by abandoning him on the steps of St. Jude's Hospital in Newton-le-Willows. Disowning her mother, Mary began living in a motorhome but eventually returned to care for an ageing Maureen when she became unable to look after herself. Despite this good deed, Maureen still continued to mistreat her daughter.
Throughout 2009, Mary had finally grown tired of her mother and planned to travel the world with her newfound friend Norris Cole. To encourage Norris to join her, Mary claimed that her mother had passed away - and the pair seemingly attended her funeral. However, Norris later decided against travelling with Mary and she left alone - only to return to Weatherfield a few months later. In May 2010, Norris began to fear that Mary was suffering a psychotic breakdown - after spotting her talking to a photograph of Maureen - and a series of unfortunate events led him to believe that she was holding him against his will at a holiday cottage. When Norris escaped, he informed the police that he believed Mary had poisoned her own mother - but it was revealed that Maureen was alive and Mary had been talking to her over an earpiece rather than to her picture.
Despite her mother being still alive, Mary still talks about her in the past tense. The reason for this is because of the negative impact Maureen had on Mary's life led to her treating Maureen like she is in the past and not part of her life any more. Mary would also make a habit of making stories about her mother's past in an almost humorous manner, although it is unclear if it is made up or just exaggerated.
Maureen had five great-aunts; Marigold, Hyacinth, Heather, Dahlia and Chlamydia (the latter was due to be named Clematis but there had been a mix up at the registry office).
- A photograph of Maureen is seen in Episode 7331 (3rd May 2010) although it is not known who the woman is in real life used for the character.