A Coronation Street star has accused the press of “bullying” her in a recent social media post.
Helen Flanagan took to Instagram to highlight the recent coverage of her, with outlets having described her as “broke” and “skint”.
It comes after she said she would be selling her house, and follows her recent driving ban.
The Bury-born actress, 34, denied the claims and said the treatment of her in the media has been “degrading and humiliating” and described it as “bullying”.
In the video, which was posted to her 1.1 million followers over the weekend, Helen said: “I’ve really been struggling about something this week, and I didn’t really want to come on social media, I was hoping that it would go away.
“But I feel like I want to say something, in the hope that it will stop. I keep seeing some really not nice articles being printed about myself in the press and I wanted to speak about it.
“It has been something that I have really, really struggled with this week, and it has made me feel really, really low in mood. I hope in me speaking about it that it might come to a stop.”
A screenshot from Helen’s Instagram post (Image: Helen Flanagan/Instagram) She added: “Even I was trying to laugh about things, but it is not funny saying that I am skint or that I am broke, which is really not very nice. I’m actually not, but it is not a nice thing at all.
“It’s no one’s business, but yes, I have lost a lot of money, but I don’t owe anybody a penny, I can hold my head up high. I don’t owe HMRC any money, I pay my taxes, I’m a good person, I have good morals, I have always paid my taxes, I am not in any debt.
“Writing these kind of things is very degrading for me, and it is very, very humiliating. I really try not to let anything in the press ever bother me, but I really have been upset about it.”
Helen, who is most famous for her time on Coronation Street as Rosie Webster, said: “I took my little one to Loch Ness and I read this article just before I was about to go into the boat and, honestly, I wanted to be dumped onto an island on the loch somewhere and just stay there.
Helen Flanagan (Image: Ian West/PA) “It is just really humiliating, it is bullying, and I have seen this so many times with so many different people in the past and I really do hope, I really do believe that, in a few years, or at least in 10 years time, this kind of bullying won’t be allowed, and I will be so here for that day.
“I do hope that, in time, the press are kinder.
“Say that I was skint, or broke, or whatever these things that they are saying about me, which I am actually not… I know that I am a good person and I know that I am not a bully, and I know that I would never, ever, write anything like that because I would think about that person and I would think about how they would feel.”
Christine McGuinness, former wife of Paddy McGuinness, took to the comments to support Helen.
She said: “It must be a slow news week, I’ve had exactly the same stories! When actually my work has never been busier. I just feel for our children, it’s not nice for them and they’re so innocent.
“But on a positive note, if people think we’re skint hopefully everyone will stop expecting us to pay for everything! Lots of love beautiful, keep shining.”
