Sam Gatley is the son of Christian and Holly Gatley, and the grandson of Hayley Cropper. He has an older sister called Maisie.
When Christian had briefly met up with Hayley in September 2013 for the first time in six years, he revealed that he was a father to two children. However, he was reluctant to introduce them to Hayley, feeling that it was too soon for them to know the truth - that Hayley was in fact his biological father.
In December, Christian returned to Weatherfield and having found out that Hayley was suffering from terminal cancer, saw an opportunity to ask her for £5,000 in order to clear his debts. He offered to introduce her to her grandchildren, and later brought Sam and Maisie to Roy's Rolls and introduced Hayley to them. The children were left in the café with Roy while Hayley and Christian went to the flat upstairs to talk about the money. Christian and the children promptly left once he had received a cheque from Hayley.