Suki Waters was a reporter from Hiya! magazine, who planned to cover a story on Gemma Winter's quadruplets once they were born.
In June 2019, Suki was called to the Rovers by Gemma, who had been informed by an expectant mother, Bea, while attending her twelve-week scan at Weatherfield General, that she could sell her story of being pregnant with quads to the press in order to make some serious money. However, when Suki realised that the quads hadn't been born yet she told Gemma that the story would unlikely be published as there was a possibility that not all four would survive and it would therefore not be the sort of story that people would want to read. Chesney Brown, the father of the quads, was angry to catch Gemma with Suki but later comforted her when she began fearing that the quads may not make it - reminding her to keep thinking positively.
In October, Gemma became stuck in a turnstile while attending a Weatherfield County match which resulted in her becoming the subject of media harassment. Rosa Vale, a PR specialist, tracked Gemma down and informed her that she could make her a lot of money due to her contacts with television shows such as Loose Women. However, when Suki caught wind of the story she began to continuously ring Gemma, causing Rose to warn her that Suki had been reprimanded the previous month for journalistic conduct bordering on harassment. Gemma turned Suki down, remembering that she had originally claimed that there would have been no story until after the birth.
The following January, Suki was now working freelance for the Weatherfield Gazette and turned her attentions to Aggie Bailey who had been nominated for a Golden Heart Award for trying to save Robert Preston's life in the Christmas Day shooting rampage by Derek Milligan. Aggie was highly reluctant to get involved in any publicity when Suki asked her for an interview and was annoyed to find out that her son James had alerted the press. She reluctantly acquiesced and allowed Suki to question her at No.3, playing down her contribution as she had previously left the nursing profession after one of her patients died when under her care and she felt compelled to resign through guilt, even though she had committed no wrong-doing. She also took a series of photographs of Aggie at work Roy's Rolls to accompany the article.
She was thus on hand when Dev Alahan discovered that his employee Chesney had been working on a promotion with the quads for Freshco, a direct competitor for his corner shop business, and fired him. Bernie Winter saw Suki taking the photographs and alerted her to this potential scoop. They ran over to the shop and questioned Dev, not realising that he and Chesney had made up and Chesney had been reinstated. An unperturbed Dev sacked Chesney again and threw them all out. After a few weeks, Chesney begged for his job back and Dev was happy to agree.
Following a conversation with friend Natasha Blakeman, Suki paid an impromptu visit to 12 Victoria Court in October 2020 to conduct an interview with Leanne Battersby, in the hope that an article in the Gazette would encourage readers to engage with the story of a mother fighting for her son and in turn, encourage more donations to Oliver Battersby's fund for pioneering medical treatment. The interview rapidly went downhill as Leanne became hostile towards Suki's questioning when it became more focused towards a mother losing her son. Leanne finally snapped, accusing Suki of trying to obtain a sob story to sell more newspapers and stormed out of the flat, returning to her son's hospital bedside. Following the fallout, Nick Tilsley appealed to the journalist's better nature by asking her not to slate Leanne in the article due to the immense pressure she was under. Suki agreed to tell her editor that there wasn't a story after all, and was also surprised when Nick announced that he was the father of Natasha's son Sam - labelling them a "blended family".
In October 2021, Suki was asked by Jenny Connor to compose an obituary for her late husband Johnny for publication in the Gazette after his death following a sinkhole collapse in the street. A mistrustful Jenny warned Suki not to put anything adverse in the article, not wanting any mention of his spell in Highfield Prison. This was something that Suki was previously unaware of, but she agreed that the piece would paint Johnny in a good light.
Two months later, Suki interviewed Sally Metcalfe about her campaign for a forthcoming by-election to Weatherfield Borough Council. Sally and Maria Connor had both planned to stand with Maria developing a passion for the environment and clean-air after her son Liam developed an asthmatic condition. Sally persuaded her to work for her campaign instead but quickly went back on her word to emphasise the environmental aspect of the campaign in the interview, instead boring Suki with endless talk about herself, such as her own comparison to Margaret Thatcher. Maria sat listening with her patience fast deteriorating and took natural offence when Sally belittled her hairdressing skills and intelligence with the end result that Maria decided to stand against her after all.
In January 2022, contributing colleague Daniel Osbourne alerted Suki to a story that was unfolding at that moment at Weatherfield High. The girls at the school became aware that some lads were taking and distributing "up-skirting" photographs and felt that the school did little to clamp down on the activity. Amy Barlow was suspended for spray painting a protest on the school wall but the anger of her and her friends intensified when they read a statement from the school advising girls to wear shorts underneath their skirts to protect themselves. Feeling that this was victim-blaming, they stepped up their actions and organised a lesson boycott, standing en masse at the entrance carrying protest banners, and with their mouths taped over to indicate that they were being silenced. Daniel secretly admired their determination and slipped away from deputy head Orla Crawshaw to ring Suki. Unable to shift the pupils, Orla asked Daniel's advice and he suggested that she offer a tangible pledge that the pupils could hold her to account with, such as consent workshops. Orla instantly liked the idea and as Suki made her presence known was able to hold in her panic and announce that "after considerable thought" such compulsory workshops were to be held and the "deeply valued" student body would be responsible for holding her to account for carrying through the pledge. Amy's suspension was also revoked to cheers from all assembled and, presumably, a sympathetic write-up from Suki.
List of appearances[]
2019
2020
2021
2022
2023
2024