Who is Nicola Rubinstein in Coronation Street, why did she leave and when is she coming back?

Coronation Street fan favourite Nicola Rubinstein is on her way back to Weatherfield after six months away.

Actress Nicola Thorp will be reprising her role in the New Year but in the meantime shall we remind ourselves who Nicola Rubinstein is?

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Who is Nicola Rubinstein in Coronation Street?

Nicola Rubinstein is the biological daughter of now-deceased serial killer Pat Phelan.

Her mother was Annabel Rubinstein and she believed Annabel’s husband Isaac was her real father until she met Pat Phelan in Weatherfield.

Annabel said that Pat had raped her, while Pat insisted to Nicola – and previously Isaac - that his relationship with her mother had been a loving and consensual affair. Annabel didn’t go to the police about the rape as she and Isaac didn’t want Nicola to know she was the child of a rapist.

Annabel and Isaac both died in a car crash prior to Nicola arriving in Weatherfield on 12 June 2017 as Seb Franklin’s social worker following his release from a detention centre.

She stayed for a year and – during that time – discovered Pat was her biological father. She also had a one night stand with Gary Windass which resulted in her falling pregnant.

She then began to become suspicious of Pat after hearing Anna Windass talk about him while they were in the hospital waiting room following Seb’s fall from a ladder, which Phelan tried to pin on Anna.

Anna told Nicola that Phelan had raped her prompting Nicola to visits an old family friend called Lydia Hartman who confirmed Nic’s suspicions that Phelan had raped her mother. She told Phelan that she wanted nothing to do with him and fled Weatherfield.

Nicola returned later and reunited with her father, but it soon became clear she was faking it to get him onside so she could find out if he was a killer. It turned out Seb had contacted her after Phelan threatened him and Seb worked out he’d killed Luke Britton.

Phelan cottoned on to the fact that Nicola was playing him and disowned her, saying she’d betrayed him. After Phelan was presumed dead, she moved in with Phelan’s widow Eileen Grimshaw and Seb.

They were all stunned when Phelan ‘returned from the dead’ and arrived at No.11 with a gun, ready to take revenge on Eileen who he felt had betrayed him too.

Nicola gave birth to her son who she named Zack in June 2018 after narrowly escaping death when Pat accidentally shot her.

Luckily Nic and baby Zack pulled through but she decided to move to Bristol when she came out of hospital for a fresh start.

Is Nicola Rubinstein returning to Coronation Street?

She is indeed heading back to the cobbles and will be ruffling some feathers in the New Year with her surprise return, with baby Zack in tow.

A source told the Daily Star: "Everyone is thrilled Nicola is coming back. She was always really popular on set and has so many friends in the cast.
"Producers think it is the perfect time to bring her character back.
"Nicola jumped at the chance to do more. She loved her first year on Corrie and wants to stay part of the family."
The star's big return will come in January after her baby daddy Gary Windass visits her in Bristol after their baby son Zach gets ill.