In tonight’s episode of Coronation Street Ryan Connor laid his heart on the line when he told his ex Alya Nazir that he loved her after she was there for him following the recent horrific acid attack. As Ryan, played by Ryan Prescott, told Alya how he really felt she unintentionally broke his heart by 'friendzoning' him on the ITV soap.
Alya, who has been regularly visiting Ryan in hospital after the DJ was struck with sulphuric acid hurled at him by Daisy Midgeley's stalker Justin Rutherford, let him know that she just wants to be friends, leaving him crushed. Many viewers were left fuming with Alya for turning him down.
@mynameisbrooke tweeted: "I feel like Alya has been mugging off Ryan for the last forty years."@sofaneilas fumed: "Gurlllll friendzoned wor Ryan again. How can they do this to me." @Alison_King_Fan gasped: "Wait, why’s alya turning him down?!! i thought she loved him too omg poor ryan."
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@AndyGibsonTV remarked: "Oh Ryan. When it rains it pours." And @RyanTheSoapking said: "This is the second time that Alya has pushed Ryan away now and friendzoned him. Ryan dosnt deserve to be messed around like this."
@caitlinbr25697 asked: "How can she do that to Ryan?" @HazelbytheCoast also asked: "How can you do that to our Ryan?" And @penniless_poet complained: "Alya has just stamped all over his poor little heart."
Actors Ryan Prescott and Sair Khan have lifted the lid on what was really happening in the emotional scenes, with Sair saying it has been "incredibly difficult" for Alya to see Ryan suffer and the shock of the attack has really hit her.
She explained: "A lot of the residents on Coronation Street have been through life-changing events but Ryan’s is one that is so physical and so painful and Alya has never seen or experienced something like this before. She is trying to be sensitive but she’s in shock, seeing someone she cares about so deeply in so much pain. It’s been eally difficult for her and it’s been quite hard for her to hide her reaction."
And Ryan says it has meant "so much" to Ryan to have Alya by his side. Explaining why he really declared his love for her he explained: "Ryan has an overwhelming fear that he will never be loved or be intimate with someone again so he reached out and tried to grasp at everything around him, one of those things being the relationship with Alya. He is in this whirlwind of emotions and the loneliness he is feeling is one of the things that pushed him to take his chance again with Alya."
Asked 'what were Alya’s first thoughts?' when Ryan opened up to her, Sair said: "Alya was quite taken aback because she wasn’t expecting it and all her focus has been on making him feel comfortable and just trying to put a smile on his face. There always has been such warmth between them but Alya realised quite quickly that it could be easy to misconstrue the way that things have been playing out between them. She thinks that, deep down, love is the last thing on Ryan’s mind."
Asked if Ryan has true feelings for his ex, actor Ryan said: "Ryan does love Alya and he has always loved Alya. I don’t think that has changed and before the acid attack happened they had a little one night stand situation and even then Ryan said to Alya, 'would you consider getting back together?'
"Alya didn’t think it was a good idea and so he took that hit before and he already knows where he stands with Alya. But after the acid attack, he is on damage control and because he feels like no one will ever love him again, he is desperate to reach out to the first place that he feels love and that place is Alya."
He added: "He tried to hold on to that as tight as he can and in doing so ends up pushing it away even further and reconfirming that it’s not going to happen like that."
Ryan says his character is 'vulnerable and so alone' after being knocked back by Alya. "Ryan was gutted. It’s the icing on the cake and when Alya shoots him down, even though it’s in a really nice way, it’s the reconfirmation of 'no one is going to love me. No one is going to accept me.' Having someone to love is a huge driving factor in Ryan’s life and he now starts to think that he is never going to have that again."
On whether Alya really does love him or see him as just a friend, Sair said: "Alya is also struggling with a lot of her own feelings in the aftermath of her attack so I don’t think she has the capacity to love in the way that she would want to love him and she isn’t open to receiving any kind of love at the moment herself."
Ryan, who has played Michelle Connor's son since 2018, is still hopeful that there could be a future for the pair, who split in 2021 after Daisy meddled in their relationship. Asked if this is the end for them, he said: "I know that Ryan hopes that it isn’t and it would be lovely to see something pop up in the future. Ryan, being such a hopeful character anyway, has got such a massive spirit and he will keep a little bit of secret hope in his heart but regardless of any idea he holds close, I think he has got a clear answer from Alya so he is not going to try again anytime soon."
And Sair said: "For now, it is the end for Ryan and Alya because as soon as Ryan tells Alya that he loves her, Alya has to put up a boundary to protect herself from getting hurt again and from hurting him by giving him mixed signals. She feels she has to protect any thread of friendship that they could possibly have by taking a step back from his healing and letting other people take the lead on it."
She added: "This is hard and heartbreaking for Alya to come to terms with because she just wants to be there for him and she doesn’t know what Ryan’s response to her taking a step back is going to be.
"Alya also needs to do a lot of healing herself; she has pretended that she is completely fine after her attack but she is playing a good game and just pretending that she is okay. When Alya sees Ryan so vulnerable, it is quite triggering for her so she feels like she needs to create a bit of a distance between them out of love."
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