Since first arriving on our screens late last year, it’s safe to say that Coronation Street 's Lauren Bolton has had far from an easy run of it, after her father was sent to prison following his part in a deadly extremist plot.
To make matters worse, the struggling teen was left without a guardian or family to rely on following his conviction, and while fending for herself even revealed that she had previously been groomed and abused by her father’s friends, leading to her difficulties in knowing who to trust and when.
Thankfully, she appeared to have found some semblance of support in Max Turner and Shona Platt in recent weeks, only for that tenuous network to crumble when Shona and Max questioned where she had found the money from to purchase Max an expensive watch.
Initially, Shona believed Lauren had stolen the money from the cafe, and even accused her of this directly before discovering that she had been mistaken, but the damage was already done, with Lauren soon telling Shona to “stick her job” as she didn’t want to work with someone that didn’t trust her.
Later in the episode, Lauren was seen bragging about how she had gotten the money from her new boyfriend, who apparently was “very rich” and “very good looking”, yet despite both of these statements, Lauren appeared to be far from thrilled about her good news.
This prompted many fans to fear that a sinister twist could be on the horizon, and one tied into her past with some of her father’s dodgy mates.
One fan wrote: “Lauren is seeing some older bloke I think it's another grooming storyline on the way.”
While a second added: “Lauren’s storyline as a prime example that child abuse, exploitation and grooming affects them later on in life but it is dismissed as them being weird.”
Before a third commented: “Is Lauren on the game and stealing?”
The dangerous turn of events would certainly be a heartbreaking setback for Lauren, who only recently appeared to have been getting her life back on track. However, it wouldn’t be the first time she had resorted to desperate measures to earn some cash.
Earlier this year, Ryan Connor caught Lauren selling photos and images of herself on an adult video platform, despite being underage herself.
After expressing concern for her actions, Lauren had even proceeded to blackmail him into keeping her secret, as she had threatened to reveal his affair with Daisy Midgley to her boyfriend Daniel Osborne.
Despite the risk, Ryan still urged her to stop what she was doing – but could she have taken more drastic action to earn some extra cash? And is her new benefactor as good as he seems?
Teasing what is coming up for Lauren, Corrie boss Iain said: "There's definitely more to come from her, she'll have quite a big role to play next year."
He continued: "There's more to come and we'll see a complexity to her character that maybe we weren't aware of until now."
Teasing the storyline further, Iain said: "We'll see her get to be in quite a romantic set of stories. She will continue to be quite troubled. There is more to come from her as kind of Roy's next project and in her own right."
Coronation Street continues Monday, Wednesday and Friday at 8pm on ITV and ITVX
Source: Read Full Article