Michelle Keegan will leave Coronation Street in 2014, after six years of playing Tina McIntyre.
Michelle will be on screen for a further 12 months until late spring of next year. Work will begin in the next few weeks on devising an exit storyline for her character.
The next 12 months promises to be an exciting one for the character of Tina McIntyre starting next month with the dramatic early birth of the surrogate child she is carrying.
Coronation Street Producer Stuart Blackburn said: ’’There is more than a year of drama to come for Tina McIntyre before we bid farewell to Michelle and plans are already being made for what will be a powerful and gripping story. We will be sorry to see Michelle go but wish her every success for the future.”
Michelle Keegan said: “I have had the most amazing 6 years at Coronation Street and it was such a difficult decision to leave. But I felt it was the right time for me to make the next step in my career.
"I will miss Tina and will always be grateful to ITV and Coronation Street for giving me such an amazing role to play for my first ever acting job. Most of all I will miss the amazing people who work on the show, my acting colleagues, cast, crew, producers and writing team. I have met people who I know will be friends for life.
"I am very excited about what the coming months hold for Tina and what the future has in store for me."
Tina McIntyre was first seen in Coronation Street in January 2008, making an appointment at the medical centre. Shortly afterwards she started dating David Platt, but the relationship got off to a rocky start when she was persuaded by Gail to abort David’s baby... which led to him to pushing his mother down the stairs when he found out.
Tina went on to have ill fated relationships with Graeme Proctor, Jason Grimshaw, Dr Carter and more recently Tommy Duckworth.
We've seen Tina overcome her battle with depression after the death of her father, and get caught up with loan sharks when boyfriend Tommy was coerced into helping them traffic drugs.
More recently, in a bid to pay off Tommy’s debts, she has entered into a surrogacy agreement with Gary and Izzy, and is expecting their child this summer.