Coronation Street's Samia Longchambon discusses personal bullying experience amid on-screen son’s storyline

Coronation Street fans have watched Maria Connor’s (Samia Longchambon) struggle and breakdown over recent weeks as she deals with her son being bullied at school. 

For the past few weeks Maria’s son Liam (Charlie Wrenshall) has been bullied by schoolboy Mason Radcliffe (Luca Toolan) and his friends. Liam suffered online abuse and was even threatened with a knife, prompting him to consider suicide. 

ITV viewers have praised Samia Longchambon, 41, for her portrayal of a mother going through a tumultuous and difficult time -  that unfortunately many parents face in real life. The actress has recently opened up about her own experience with bullying that has helped her with the storyline. 

In an interview with The Mirror Samia said: “There’s that saying: ‘Sticks and stones might break my bones, but words will never hurt me. But they do. Bruises can fade, but words are so much more painful. They have massive lasting effects on people.”

“I was bullied throughout my childhood. I was bullied a bit in primary school, and then at high school as well. It’s important to talk to people, to not bottle things up. As much as people are scared of being a snitch, or that kind of stigma attached to that, the bigger picture is that you need to tell an adult, you need to tell your friends, you need to just keep talking.”

As well as drawing from her own personal experience of bullying, Sami is also a mother and has two young children. Her eldest Freya is the same age as Charlie who plays her onscreen son Liam in the soap. Samia explained the thought of either of her two children going through something like Liam has in the soap is awful but “the message seems to be getting out there.”

Samia Longchambon arrived on the cobbles back in 2000. She appeared on Dancing on Ice in 2013 where she met her now husband Sylvain Longchambon. The couple married in 2016 and share a son together. She shares daughter Freya with ex-husband Matthew Smith.  

Natalie Dixon is NationalWorld’s Lifestyle reporter. If you liked this article and want to read more about celebrities, fashion and beauty you can follow Natalie Dixon on X (Twitter) here. You can also sign up to her free weekly lifestyle column in the NationalWorld Today newsletter bringing you all the latest fashion and beauty news straight to your inbox every Wednesday.