Coronation Street favourite Bernie Winter was at the centre of a harrowing episode on Thursday as she continued to spiral amid her grief following Billy Mayhew’s death
21:00, 29 Jan 2026Updated 21:02, 29 Jan 2026
Bernie Winter found herself in ‘devastating’ circumstances on Thursday’s Coronation Street
Coronation Street‘s Bernie Winter found herself in “devastating” circumstances amid her grief on Thursday night’s episode. The cafe waitress, who has been played by Jane Hazelgrove since 2019, has been through a lot recently after her son-in-law Billy Mayhew (Daniel Brocklebank) died in a crash as part of the programme’s crossover with Emmerdale earlier this month.
For the last few years, Bernie has also been dealing with the death of her son Billy, who was married to Paul and passed away following a battle with MND in what was an award-winning storyline. On the world’s longest-running episode of the TV soap, which aired just after Billy’s funeral, Bernie was unable to cope any longer and deciding to go out drinking to deal with her problems.
Whilst knocking back booze at the bar at the Chariot Square hotel, she was approached by a man called Mal, who promptly introduced himself to her and started buying them both rounds of drinks. When Ryan asked them to leave, Bernie insisted they go out clubbing but Mal wanted them to head to his hotel room first so they could open the minibar.
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Bernie was determined to run away from her problems amid her grief(Image: ITV)
Later on, they were out indeed out clubbing and enjoying a dance but a flashback scene revealed that she and Mal had taken drugs in the hotel room.
When they first met, Mal had revealed he was trying to get over the fact that his wife had been seeing someone else, and in the room, he began to glean information out of her about her grief before trying to get her to sleep with him. Through tears, Bernie said to him: “I was an unfit mother, and I’ll never get the chance to make it up to him and Billy was the love of his life. He was gold. He was the loveliest, the kindest, and a little piece of my Paul and now he’s gone. They’ve both gone!”
All this time, Bernie’s husband Dev was becoming increasingly worried about where she had gone, and, in the present, it transpired that Bernie had passed out in the stall of the club toilets. But, in another twist, what Bernie was completely unaware of, was that Mal had stormed into Roy’s Rolls earlier to announce himself as the husband of Alice, a woman whom the cafe owner had become a pen pal of.
Holding up a bunch of flowers Roy had sent to Alice, Mal proclaimed: “You sent these to my wife,” and punched him right in the face, prompting gasps from everyone around. Roy said: “Look, I would never pursue a married woman! It was intended that we meet last week, and the flowers were an apology for my cancellation!”
At the Chariot Square, she met a man named Mal and went up to his room as her husband Dev worried about her whereabouts (Image: ITV)
Mal said: “She never even mentioned me? 31 years. Three kids. Airbrushed out? I’m sorry. I’m sorry,” and walked back out once he realised his error.
The episode received a mixed reaction from fans, with some not entirely understanding the non-linear format. One said: “Not sure I liked the setup of today’s Corrie episode. Bernie was great but didn’t like the back and forth of the past and present scenes it was confusing at times.”
But others were full of praise for the way Bernie’s grief was explored, and are worried for what might come next. One said: “Devastating final scenes in tonight’s #Corrie for Bernie! Jane Hazelgrove is phenomenal,” and another said: “Bernie is really struggling and is going down the wrong path with trying to deal with her grief for Paul and Billy.”
A third wrote on X:”Uh-oh Bernie, whatever have you gone and done?!!!” and a fourth, on Reddit, said: “Through Billy’s death she has re-experienced Paul’s death and is re-grieving this time for both. Dev needs to back off be there when she needs him and let her mourn. Don’t let her lose the plot keep her on the straight and narrow!”
Coronation Street airs weeknights at 8:30pm on ITV1 and ITV X. * Follow Mirror Celebs and TV on TikTok , Snapchat , Instagram , Twitter , Facebook , YouTube and Threads .