Coronation Street Charlie De Melo has shared the sweet reason viewers will never see him popping up in another soap. The actor has quit the ITV soap after nearly five years of playing Imran Habeeb.
In shock scenes, the solicitor died from his injuries after being involved in a car crash alongside new wife Toyah. While Imran was the one to pull Toyah from the wreckage, it was the new dad and husband who tragically lost his life after he suddenly collapsed from a cardiac arrest on the scene as his wife was loaded into an ambulance. While fans have known about Charlie’s plans to leave the soap for a few months, Corrie kept tightlipped on the circumstance around his death and left fans floored with his permanent departure.
The 32-year-old soap star has since revealed more on his decision to quit the long-running soap, revealing he had planned to leave before the coronavirus pandemic struck. "I was enjoying myself so much there and constantly being challenged and put in front of some of the most talented people I’ve ever worked with,” Charlie told the Manchester Evening News and other press about his subsequent time on the cobbles.
READ MORE: ITV Corrie's Georgia Taylor worlds away from Toyah drama in loved-up snaps with rarely seen partner
"But that meant I saw a version of myself that would be staying there until I was booted or whatever and I came to the realisation that I have no spouse, no car, no mortgage, or kid, all these things that would otherwise necessitate consistency and I thought if I don’t close my eyes and step off into the void now, I never will."
Charlie does admit that he toyed with the idea of being able to come back in years to come, just like his on-screen wife Georgia Taylor. But the decision was taken out of his hands and it is now time for him to head onto pastures new.
But don’t expect that to include another soap role. When asked about his plans and what he’d like to do next, Charlie said: "I am ambitious but I’m also sort of directionless. It would be a shorter list to say what I don’t want to do. I by no means mean this to sound disparaging but the main thing is to not do another job like this [Corrie].
"One, I’ve done it and, two… wherever it was, whichever one of the other shows it would be there would never be another Georgia there or another Millie [Gibson - who plays Kelly Neelan] there and there will never be another Jane [Danson - Leanne Battersby] there.
"The experience I’ve had here is incomparable and to try and match it by going to another place like this, it would be diminished returns.”
And it hasn’t been easy to leave his co-stars behind. "I have settled into the fact and come to terms with the fact that chances are I probably never will work with Georgia again, Millie again, Jane again, Ben [Price - Nick Tilsley] again, all of these wonderful actors I’ve had the joy of working with, in such close proximity and with such frequency. To realise that is upsetting."
Georgia, who Charlie told first about his decision to leave, was also 'heartbroken' at the news. When asked how she feels about it all, the soap star, 41, told the Manchester Evening News and other press: "Heartbroken. I absolutely adore him. He's been a dream, an absolute dream. We have been together on the show for three and a half years but in the last year, since we've done all the stuff with Seb's trial, we've been pretty consistently busy and most of our stuff has been together and it's just been a joy."
She went on to gush: "He's so funny so we laugh a lot but he is honestly one of the most supportive people I have ever worked with and even now, we're still in touch obviously, he's texting me, 'How did the day go? Are you OK?' He's just a team player.
"And I mean look at him, there's no complaints there either. He's beautiful. He's been amazing but I'm so excited to see what he's going to do next because I think the opportunities are going to be endless for him. He's going to fly."
But they won’t get away from him that easily. "I wouldn’t let them [not stay in touch with him] even if they wanted to,” Charlie joked. He was also full of admiration for the soap’s young cast and didn’t have a bad word to say about his time on the nation’s most famous street.
"It’s the thing that everyone says where they’re in my position when they are on their way out, and it seems so earnest and insincere but it is so true that it [Corrie] is just the best place to work and to list my highlights… everything’s a highlight so nothing is," he said.
