Rachel Leskovac has admitted that she has "bittersweet" feelings over her character Natasha's tragic death on Coronation Street last night.
Natasha became the second casualty of Horror Nation Street, dying in hospital after being shot by Harvey (Will Mellor) in a case of mistaken identity.
Having originally appeared on the cobbles between 2008 and 2010, Natasha made a surprise return last year to tell Nick (Ben Price) that he had a son, Sam (Jude Riordan).
After slowly allowing Nick and the Platt family into their lives, Natasha had been making plans to move onto the street with Sam before the fatal shooting.
"It's been bittersweet," Leskovac told The Mirror. "I'm hugely grateful to have worked during this period of time unlike a lot of my peers, but on the other hand it does feel like there was so much more we could have explored with the character, had times been different and COVID not so restrictive.
"I think that's what I'll miss the most, having that opportunity to watch her branch out and form relationships with different characters on the street.
"On the positive side of going in during a pandemic because the crews were stripped back it felt quite intimate which is always nice. There was more opportunity to do two handers and I like the intimacy of that."
On filming her final scenes in the hospital bed, she added: "I'd done a bit of filming with Ben Price before Jude came onto set and I was already feeling quite emotional, but because it was my last scene filming with him from the moment I saw Jude, I just started crying and I didn't stop till they said cut.
"It was really emotional to the point I couldn't look at him in between takes because I just found it too difficult, it was pretty much non-stop crying."
Leskovac's Corrie exit comes days after Richard Hawley left the show as his character Johnny Connor died in a sewer beneath the street.
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