Coronation Street character goes behind a loved one’s back as a huge showdown is confirmed
When Dee-Dee Bailey (Channique Sterling-Brown) gave birth to her daughter Laila in Coronation Street she was determined to give the baby up for adoption.
With Laila being the child of evil Joel Deering (Calum Lill), Dee-Dee had been convinced she wouldn’t be able to cope with raising her. She only went through with the pregnancy and the birth because Lauren Bolton (Cait Fitton)’s son Frankie needed a bone marrow transplant and they hoped Dee-Dee’s baby would be a match.
But everything changed after the baby was born. It was a traumatic experience for Dee-Dee and life-saving surgery for her after the birth left her unable to have any more children. With her brother James (Jason Callender) keen to adopt the baby – who was named Laila – this seemed like the perfect solution.
But as Dee-Dee has seen more of Laila, she’s grown more and more attached to her, even referring to her as ‘my little girl’ in a radio interview.
Dee-Dee’s Christian faith is very important to her, so recently she’s realised that she would love Laila to be baptised. Unfortunately James isn’t religious and told his sister that he didn’t want Laila to have anything to do with the church.
Dee-Dee ignored this and talked to Billy (Daniel Brocklebank) about arranging a christening. He said that James would have to give his permission, but when James refused to discuss the subject, Dee-Dee lied to Billy and said James was happy to go ahead.
When Dee-Dee asked Alya (Sair Khan) to be Laila’s godmother, Alya was troubled by the idea that the christening was going to be behind James’s back. She reluctantly agreed, and the plans for the christening were finalised.
The repercussions of this decision will become clear in upcoming episodes. The christening goes ahead, and Dee-Dee celebrates with Alya and Adam (Sam Robertson), Laila’s godparents, and thanks Billy for a lovely service.
How James reacts in the immediate aftermath of the christening remains to be seen, but it’s not long before he tells Dee-Dee that he’s spoken to the adoption team to get the ball rolling on becoming Laila’s legal guardian.
It’s clear from that that he’s not happy about such a huge decision as a christening being made without his consent and he’s taking steps to make sure noting like that can happen again.
How will Dee-Dee react to this news?
