Actor James Craven has confirmed his departure from Coronation Street, saying 'it's obviously very sad.'
James had been at the centre of a major storyline in recent months, with his character Aaron Sandford raping friend Amy Barlow after she drunkenly passed out beside him.
The consent storyline saw Amy turn to alcohol to numb her pain before deciding to drop her allegation against Aaron when she realised the fees would cost Tracy and Steve their business.
Viewers saw Aaron leave Weatherfield in emotional scenes on Friday night.
Actor James has now confirmed he will not be returning to the cobbles. The actor has been a part of the show since April 2022 when he appeared as Webster's Autocentre mechanic Aaron.
Speaking after his departure, James admitted he is sad to be leaving after making lots of great friends on the ITV soap.
"It’s obviously very sad, it's been a lot of fun and I’ve really, really loved my time there. I met so many great people and I've made so many good friends for life. But I'm excited, I'm really, really excited to get on and go on and do other things," said the actor.
Asked for his next career move, James said: "There’s a couple of things I've got coming out but I can't really say too much at the moment."
James also hinted that his exit as disappointing on a personal level but 'realistic' given the subject matter.
"I was always hoping that he would admit it or have some sort of admittance. I liked that there wasn’t anything particularly overly dramatic about it, and I think unfortunately that is quite realistic, because there are so many of these cases in real life where people don't face justice and people aren't prosecuted for it. So I think whilst that's obviously quite a hard thing to come to terms with for Amy, it is sadly quite realistic. I never wanted him to get away with it but I think it's one of those things that he's now got to live with it, knowing what he's done."
He continued: "I do feel very proud, from the beginning I knew how much work I was going to put into it and I knew how much work everyone at Corrie has put into it. As soon as we got started I knew it was going to be a really positive storyline in the long run so it’s something that I feel very proud of. It’s something that I hope the fans have enjoyed and more than anything have started to think about."
