Ronald "Ronnie" Bailey is the flash brother of Ed Bailey.
Ronnie dated his future sister-in-law Aggie before Ed. In 2021, he walked out on his wife and business partner Kat, moving from London to Weatherfield to determine whether his nephew Michael was really his son, though this turned out not to be the case.
As a long-term guest at the Rovers Return, Ronnie had a one-night stand with landlady Jenny Connor which resulted in the breakdown of her marriage to Johnny. He has since begun a relationship with former Viaduct Bistro owner Debbie Webster and gone into business with Ed, buying sites to re-develop. He dissolved the partnership when Ed gambled away the company funds, opting to carry on solo.
Biography[]
Ronnie was born circa 1969. His brother Ed, who was five years older, remembered that he was always getting Ronnie out of trouble in their youth.
Ronnie knew his future sister-in-law Aggie before Ed. As a young man, he cheated on his wife Ruth with Aggie, neglecting to tell her that he was married. When Aggie left him, Ronnie returned to Ruth, but the marriage ended in divorce a year or two later. Aggie and Ed were married in 1990, around the time their son Michael was born. Ronnie harboured a suspicion that Michael may actually be his, but knowing that it would rip the family apart he never tried to confirm it and he and Aggie agreed never to speak of their relationship again.
Ronnie went on to find success as a property developer, based in London. He also owned a restaurant at some point. There were more women in his life, but as he was still carrying a torch for Aggie, none of the relationships lasted. In 2018, he had a holiday romance in Ibiza with a woman named Kat. He proposed to her while they were skinny dipping, and a week later they tied the knot. After a year of marriage, Ronnie found out that Kat had been unfaithful to him with his best man and left her, though he kept his stake a business they co-owned.
By 2021, Ronnie had filed for divorce. In February of that year, he visited his brother and family at 3 Coronation Street, the first time he'd seen them in years. The reason for his visit was to find out for sure if Michael was his son; Michael was now expecting a child of his own with Grace Vickers, and Ronnie couldn't bear to miss his grandchild's childhood like he'd missed Michael's. Aggie was wary of Ronnie, ostensibly because she believed he would lead Ed astray with his flash lifestyle. Ronnie was shocked to learn about his brother's gambling addiction which had cost the family their house, and dropped his suggestions that they head out to the casino.
In the following weeks, Ronnie found himself a local job and moved into the Rovers Return Inn as a paying guest. He began to have an active role in the preparations for the birth of Michael's daughter, but Ed began to feel that he was treading on his toes as he was unable to compete with his brother's bank account. The child, Glory Bailey, was born on 17th March when Grace went into labour while waiting for Ronnie to pick her up at Freshco. Ronnie had been delayed when Kat tracked him down to Weatherfield, stubbornly refusing to accept their marriage being over.
After the birth, unable to keep the truth to himself any longer Ronnie confessed to Ed that he had been with Aggie and Michael could be his son. Michael found out too when Ronnie made enquiries with the nursing staff about Glory possibly having sickie cell disease, of which he was a carrier, telling them that he was Michael's father. The question was finally answered when Michael took a paternity test, which confirmed that Ed was his dad. While Ed and Aggie were able to work things out, Ed told Ronnie that they were done as brothers. Ronnie tried to make it up to Ed by paying for his new campervan to be done up, but this only angered him further as Ed had planned to work on the van as a pet project.
Ronnie's landlady, Jenny Connor, had been his partner in crime and obtained the van keys off Michael. In helping Ronnie, Jenny threw caution to the wind and slept with him, almost instantly regretting her actions. She reconciled Ronnie and Ed but felt used when Kat returned and introduced herself as Ronnie's wife. Ronnie sent Kat away again and later sold her his half of the business to cut all ties. The situation became messier still when Jenny's husband Johnny arrived home unexpectedly from Highfield Prison. Daisy Midgeley tried to blackmail Ronnie to sell Double Glammy products, but Jenny slapped her stepdaughter down by threatening to throw her out. Johnny left Jenny after learning of her one-night-stand, but not ready to accept that her marriage was over, Jenny never tried to rekindle her romance with Ronnie.
In August, Debbie Webster involved an innocent Ronnie in a cat and mouse game of changing offers on the Viaduct Bistro with Nick Tilsley and Leanne Battersby. Debbie later dined with Ronnie to apologise to him, and started to see him, upsetting Jenny who had just been given Johnny's blessing to move on with her life.
A wealthy restauranteur and hotelier, Debbie was a good match for Ronnie, but their relationship wasn't plain sailing. In July 2022, Ronnie asked Ed to go in with him building houses on the site of a derelict pub. When Ed was electrocuted by bad wiring at one of Debbie's hotels and ended up in hospital, the Baileys sued Debbie for £30,000. Debbie tried to raise the sum by paying Ryan Connor to stage a break-in at the bistro, but he was caught and arrested. Ronnie finished with Debbie, but when she made reparations to Ryan for taking the rap, and confessed her perilous financial situation to Nick and Leanne, he felt sorry for her and took her back, moving in with her not long afterwards.
Ronnie and Ed finished the Tavern Mews housing redevelopment the following June, and buoyed by its success they decided to go into business together, trading as EdiRon Developments. At the same time, Debbie got wind that LS Waterford were planning a buyout of Newton & Ridley and persuaded Ronnie to use their profits to invest in the brewery shares in expectation of a windfall. Ronnie did so behind Ed's back, but had to confess when Ed put in a bid for a plot of land, unaware that their money was now tied up. When the buyout occurred, the Baileys were in profit, and a guilty Ronnie put Ed in charge of the company's business account. Their bid for the land was accepted, but it was a troubled project with delays caused by the discovery of Leo Thompkins's body resulting in developers pulling out.
In October, Ronnie found out that Ed was gambling again, straining their business relationship. Ed threatened to report Ronnie for insider trading when Ronnie said that Aggie ought to be informed. The following month, their father Sarge arrived for a visit and asked to borrow £2,000 from Ronnie and Ed to set up a food truck back home in Dominica, compounding Ed's financial problems. When a desperate Ed handed over all the family's Christmas presents to be sold at a pawn shop to pay off Tony Byrne, Ronnie was sympathetic, but he soured when, in a final effort to pay his debts, Ed gambled EdiRon's money on a horse and lost. With the true source of EdiRon's funds coming out during a family argument, Ronnie's solicitor niece Dee-Dee accused Ronnie of whetting Ed's appetite for gambling with his insider trading. She went to the police to report his crime, but changed her mind at the last moment, unable to bring herself to put a family member behind bars. Ronnie wrote off Ed's debt to the business but told his brother that they were finished as partners.
Personality[]
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Background information[]
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Appendices[]
List of addresses[]
| Address | Duration |
|---|---|
| London | Until March 2021 |
| Rovers Return Inn | 12th March 2021 to late 2022/early 2023 |
| Debbie Webster's house | Late 2022/early 2023 to present |
Employment history[]
| Role | Institution | Duration |
|---|---|---|
| Director | EdiRon Developments | 14th August 2023 to present |
First and last lines[]
"You wanna be careful carrying that at your age!" (First line, to brother Ed)