Coronation Street viewers were left reeling last night after the death of Katy Armstrong off-screen.
But when the soap’s official Instagram account posted an image of Katy with the caption: “R.I.P Katy Armstrong #Corrie #Katy #Chesney #Izzy,” fans went into meltdown mistakenly believing the actress, Georgia May Foote had died.
The clue as to who was actually deceased may have been in the character names being in the caption, but it didn’t stop quite a few people questioning whether Georgia had in fact passed away.
“Has she died in real life?” asked several, while another asked: “Wait in real [life] or [the show]?”
“She’s dead in real life?” a third queried.
Others wondered if her real life death was the reason for her on-screen death that many felt was unnecessary and out of the blue.
“Why have they randomly killed her off has she died in real life?!” asked someone.
While another added: “That just seems really random unless something’s happened to her in real life to stop her coming back to it.”
“She never died irl right?? Only 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????” asked one, clearly distressed, viewer.
Thankfully many others were on hand to correct the misunderstanding and clear up who had actually died.
The news of Katy’s death was broken on-screen by Izzy.
She revealed her sister had been killed in a car accident in Portugal, where she’s been living since she departed in 2015.
But despite their upset at Katy’s fate, some viewers were left convinced she isn’t really dead and she’s going to return just like Kathy Beale did in EastEnders.
They immediately went onto Twitter to suggest their theories that it won’t be long before we see Katy again.
She could certainly stir up trouble for her ex Chesney Brown and his new fiancee Sinead Tinker if she did make a comeback.
After Izzy revealed Katy’s fate, she went on to say that Joseph, Katy’s son with Chesney, hadn’t been in the car at the time of the accident, and their mum was looking after the little lad.
Sinead was left with the grim task of telling her boyfriend, Ches, that his ex was dead.
A clearly shaken Ches, who was recuperating in hospital after collapsing in the kebab shop, immediately jumped out of bed, tearing off his monitor wires.
“I need to get to my son!” he yelled, as the doctor tried to get him to get back into bed.
He then headed back to the cobbles where he borrowed the money for a flight off Dev and booked to jet out the same evening.
Oh and Sinead asked him to marry her just before he caught his flight. What a day for Chesney.
Chesney will be seen bringing Joseph back to the cobbles.
Ches and Katy became parents to Joseph back in 2011.
Katy left Coronation Street for a life in the sun with her dad in 2015 and took little Joseph with her.
At the time, the door was left open for her return, but a source has now revealed to The Sun that: “Bosses have clearly decided that she has no future in the soap, and have ruled out a return by killing her off.
“You’d have thought they would show such a well-known character being written out on screen but that wasn’t to be.”
Georgia went to reach the final of Strictly Come Dancing with her partner Giovanni Pernice, who this year is partnered with Debbie McGee.
She’s yet to comment on her alter-ego’s unceremonious exit from the soap.
Corrie fans were quick to pay tribute to the popular character, though…