CORONATION Street fans were left distraught after reading a RIP tribute to former character Katy Armstrong and mistakenly believing actress Georgia May Foote had died.
Viewers were up in arms after spotting the picture upload on the ITV soap's Instagram page showing the stunning brunette in her former TV role, prior to her departure in 2015.
Earlier this month, The Sun exclusively reported how Georgia's character would be killed in an off-screen accident.
The shot, uploaded late last night, showed 26-year-old actress Georgia all smiles in a Weatherfield ginnel with the caption: "R.I.P Katy Armstrong," and a broken Emoji heart, as well as the hashtags #katy #corrie #chesney #issy.
Yet the upload sparked a flurry of confused messages underneath, with one show fan wailing: “Yeah the actor or the character please reply?”
Another then put: “The actor of the character?” as one quizzed: "Has she died in real life?”.
A soap addict followed up with the question: “She’s dead in real life?” as one mused: “She never died irl right?? Only [in] the soap?? I only ask coz she’s not in the soap and they killed her off-screen and normally that’s how they do it when it’s a real death.. so I just wanna clarify, she didn’t die irl????”
This month we reported in an odd move by show chiefs, Katy's exit won’t even be shown on-screen — instead leaving it to another character to announce that she has died in a car crash.
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In scenes aired last night, Katy's sister Izzy received a call to say her sibling had passed away after a crash in Portugal, where she had gone to live with her mother in 2015.
The character took her son Joseph with her, but he survived the horror accident.
Meanwhile a TV source told The Sun: “As Katy, Georgia was really popular with Corrie fans and had some big storylines. But bosses have clearly decided that she has no future in the soap, and have ruled out a return by killing her off.
“You might have thought they would show such a well-known character being written out on-screen but that wasn’t to be.”
And in real-life, Georgia has moved to LA to find fame with boyfriend George Alsford.
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