Coronation Street star Charlotte Jordan has shared her passionate thoughts on the 'victim blaming mentality' that those suffering from the likes of stalking face as her on-screen character continues to find herself in her own unwanted hell. In recent months viewers have seen Daisy Midgeley, who has been played by Charlotte since 2020, dealing with admirer Justin.
The pair met in scenes aired on the ITV soap in December when Daisy nervously waited for the results of a scan after she found a lump in her breast. A man nearby, who we now know to be Justin, noticed that Daisy was upset and went to sit with her and after they got talking, he told her that he was there with his mother, who has terminal cancer.
Luckily, Daisy got the all clear and she pressed on with her wedding plans as partner Daniel Osbourne realised that life was too short and popped the question. But the Rovers barmaid became confused when flowers kept arriving at the pub. She assumed they were from the DJ she flirted with at a wedding fair as she raged at her fiance Daniel.
But in scenes aired last month, Justin arrived at the Rovers Return and the penny dropped for a horrified Daisy when Justin asked her about the flowers. And despite her best efforts to get him to stay away, Justin keeps appearing on the street, in his role as a delivery, driver and Daisy's blood ran cold when she received funeral flowers.
Things, however, are only going to get more dangerous for Daisy, who has been told to keep a diary of evidence by the police after going to them about Justin's harassment. Next week in Weatherfield, viewers will see Daisy pushed to breaking point after Justin gets hold of her number and bombards her with messages. Encountering Justin bearing a bunch of flowers on Victoria Street, Daisy storms over, hurls the bouquet onto the pavement and stamps on it.
But as Justin places a calming hand on her arm, Daisy sees red and punches him, witnessed by a shocked George. Justin reveals his mum has just died and he was visiting George to sort the arrangements. Daisy bursts into tears on Daniel’s shoulder. PC Jess then invites Daisy to the station because Justin has accused her of assault.
Speaking about Daniel's support of Daisy, and how he thinks her social media habits are to blame, and the opinions of her mother, Christina, who recently arrived on the cobbles, that she should be 'flattered' by the attention, Charlotte told the Manchester Evening News and other press: "It's just the worst. It's just victim blaming mentality [which] is so dangerous and so damaging. Again, we've got this whole epidemic at the minute where violent crimes against women are, for some reason, the woman's responsibility to stop everything and the onus is always on the woman to change her behaviours and change the things she's doing and that's just so, so wrong.
"I don't have degrees or anything like that so I'm probably not articulating it very well but the responsibility should not be on the woman not to post a picture of herself [on social media] where she feels cute it should be in educating men on what a healthy relationship is and what consent is. It's got to be talking about it with men rather than telling women, 'No, no. change everything about yourself so that you don't put yourself in a dangerous position."
But Charlotte also thinks that Daisy is the right character for this storyline as she discussed how she'll change in the process of her ordeal. "I think it was really important to do this storyline and very clever to do it with a character like Daisy because she's a divisive character," the actress said.
"You either love her or your hate her. There's not really an inbetween and all the things that make her Daisy - she is extra, she is flamboyant, she is camp, she is big - you'll just start to see her crumble and get smaller and smaller and I don't think, really, she'll ever feel the same again."
Asked how she felt when she was told about the storyline, Charlotte added: "I thought it was brilliant. Lucky me that they have given me my own storyline because there are a lot of people here and not everybody gets one. So that was wonderful. And I thought it was a really important one to tell. It's a really current topic at the minute so anything that can be shown to change people's views on victim blaming and things like that, anything that can shine a light on it, sign me up."
Corrie has been working with the Suzy Lamplugh Trust, which was founded in 1986 and is the largest specialist personal safety and stalking organisation of its kind worldwide, on the storyline in which Justin is defined as An Intimacy Seeking Stalke, one which arises out of a context of loneliness and whose motivation is to establish an emotional connection, intimate and loving relationship with the victim.
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