EILEEN Derbyshire’s son has shared a very rare update on his actress mum – a decade after she left Coronation Street.
Fan-favourite Eileen, 93, played the role of Emily Bishop on the Weatherfield cobbles for 55 years.
𝑭𝒂𝒏𝒑𝒂𝒈𝒆 & 𝑾𝒆𝒃𝒔𝒊𝒕𝒆: C𝐨𝐫𝐫𝐢𝐞𝐧𝐞𝐰𝐬.𝙞𝒏𝙛𝒐
𝑭𝒂𝒏𝒑𝒂𝒈𝒆 & 𝑾𝒆𝒃𝒔𝒊𝒕𝒆: C𝐨𝐫𝐫𝐢𝐞𝐧𝐞𝐰𝐬.𝙞𝒏𝙛𝒐
However, the star stepped away from ITV soap in 2016 for an “extended break”.
Eileen returned only once, in 2019, when she made a brief appearance on a video call.
The actress has kept a low profile since her exit, but now her sports journalist son Oliver has given fans a rare update on Eileen.
Writing in his sports column for MailOnline, he revealed Eileen has moved into a care home.
Oliver said: “My dad died during the pandemic and my mum moved last year to a care home for retired actors and actresses.
“The morning after the game I went into Harrogate, bought her some cakes from Betty’s and took them with me when I went to see her the next day.
“We went out into the garden and sat in the shade of a cedar tree and talked about old times and her childhood home in Urmston, opposite the Manchester United house where Dennis Viollet lived.
“And she listened while I told her I had finished what she started when she took me to that game at Old Trafford all those years ago.”
Meanwhile, Oliver previously told fans Eileen has “a few issues” but that she’s “well looked after”.
Cast of classic ITV drama reunite 18 years after show was cancelled – as they’re all cast in Coronation Street together
Some of her most memorable storylines as Emily on Coronation Street included her string of problematic romances.
She jilted her shopkeeper colleague Leonard Swindley (Arthur Lowe) at the alter and confessed she only married him in fear of ending up a spinster.
Her next lover Ernie Bishop (Stephen Hancock) was brutally murdered and Emily’s second husband, pet shop owner Arnold Swain (George Waring) was revealed to be a bigamist.
Emily also kept busy with charity efforts around Weatherfield and shared plenty of laughs with her lodgers, the ever-grumpy Percy Sugden (Bill Waddington) and the gossip-loving Norris Cole (Malcolm Hebden).
