Coronation Street’s Will Mellor gets emotional speaking about his father’s death during lockdown 

Two Pints icon Will Mellor got emotional while speaking about his father’s death in April last year and said it ‘still gets him now’.

Speaking to Phillip Schofield and Holly Willoughby on This Morning on Monday, the Coronation Street actor, 44, said it was the ‘toughest thing’ to lose his parent.

Will’s father Bill died suddenly, just two weeks after being diagnosed with cancer and Will was unable to comfort his grieving family due to social distancing guidelines. 

Phillip said: ‘I’m so sorry, you lost your dad during lockdown didn’t you?’  

Fighting back tears, Will said: ‘Yeah it’s been horrendous, really tough. It’s the toughest thing to lose someone like that. 

‘We did everything together and in lockdown, I couldn’t be with him, I couldn’t hug him, say goodbye. It still gets me now, it’s so hard.’

The star admitted that he’s able to keep his father’s memory alive by wearing his ring while he’s playing the role of the Corrie’s villain Harvey. 

Will said: ‘I wear his ring everyday. They let me wear it for the character. He lives in me now so I’m going to take him with me wherever I am. 

‘I look down and if I’m having a difficult time, and grief hits you where you least expect it. He’s with me on the cobbles, and it makes me smile.’ 

Speaking of the soap, Will called it an ‘honour’ to be involved and called his character a ‘nasty piece of work’. 

Will said: He’s a nasty piece of work, it was an honour to be asked to do it. It’s not a character I usually play. 

‘To do something as big as Coronation Street and to be a baddie, I thought it would be fun to play. He’s the worst of the worst, to try and encourage young people into dealing drugs. 

‘He preys on people who don’t have criminal records so they slip under the drug squad’s radar.’

The father-of-two revealed that his mother Shirley is a huge fan of the show and he took on the role because the family needed ‘a bit of a lift’.  

Holly asked: ‘Dream role for you, do your family all watch?’ 

Will said: ‘It’s been a terrible year for us, we’ve had it hard. The start of this year, I just thought I’m going to grab life by the horns and see what comes my way. 

‘I said if they ever come and ask me, I’ll do it. I’m probably the only Northern actor who hasn’t been on it. 

‘When I was 12 and got an agent, my mum said I just want you to be in Corrie! We needed a bit of a lift.’  

Will, who has children Jayden, 17, and Renee, 13, with wife Michelle, then went on to tell the presenters a bizarre story about his pet cats, revealing he got the wrong one put down.

He said: ‘I have two Bengal cats and they’re semi-wild. Leo kept going for longer periods, he went for the last seven months. 

‘He was gone for ages and we thought, maybe he’s not coming back. We thought maybe that’s it. We got a phone call that someone had found him, a vets. 

‘They said we’ve got your cat Leo. He looked a bit rough, I thought he could have been living in someone’s shed. 

‘His meow was wrong so we took him to the vets and they found out he had cancer of the throat and would have to put him down. I was an emotional wreck.’

The star’s story took a strange turn when he revealed that he then got a phone call saying his cat had been struck by a car.

Will added: ‘We got his ashes and put them on the mantel piece. A few months later, we got a call saying your cats been run over. 

‘I said no he hasn’t, his ashes are on the mantel piece. They put down the wrong cat. The first cat, they said the chip had been corrupted. 

‘It cost me a fortune to get Leo right cos his back leg was struck. My daughter was like, he’s back from the dead! I got him fixed, cost me thousands in vet bills. 

‘As soon as he got better, he ran out the window and haven’t seen him since. He’s been gone for a year now. I still don’t know who this is on my mantelpiece.’