Gail Rodwell's Unlucky Love Life:
Gail Rodwell had been unlucky in love and had been married four times before. Gail's maiden name was Potter before she got married.
Her first marriage was to Brian Tilsley which was from 1979 to 1989. Gail met Brian at a party and they soon started dating and quickly fell for each other. It wasn't long until they were engaged and got married in 1979. By them marrying it had set off a fifteen year feud between Gail and Brian's mother Ivy who disliked her new daughter in law. Gail soon fell pregnant and she welcomed son Nicky in 1980. Having moved to their own house in Buxton Close, Gail now had a family of her own to look after.
In 1986 Gail had a brief affair with Brian's cousin Ian Latimer and shortly fell pregnant again. Gail was originally unsure of the identity of the baby's father and when Brian found out he wanted Gail to have an abortion, which she refused point blank. Baby Sarah-Louise was born in 1987. but Gail's infidelity had caused the break up of the Tilsley marriage. After taking paternity tests was proved that Brian was to be baby Sarah's father. In 1988 Brian and Gail reunited and got married again.
Unfortunately their marriage quickly deteriorated, and Brian and Gail had a massive argument one night as Brian was leaving to go out to a nightclub. They knew their marriage was over, however Brian had vowed to take custody of Nicky. This threat was never carried out as Brian was stabbed outside the nightclub.
Gail and Ivy clashed over Brian's funeral with Ivy wanting her son to have a Catholic burial, reflecting the faith that he was born and raised in. But Gail disputing and ultimately succeeding in giving Brian a protestant service, for which Ivy vowed to never forgive her. Also Gail struggled to handle the subject of Brian's death with Nicky and as a result Nicky didn't process Brian's death properly and ran away looking for Brian, this forced Gail to broach the subject again and tried to make Nicky understand.
She then went onto marry Martin Platt which was from 1989 and lasted till 2001. After her first husband Brian's death, Gail became attracted to the much younger Martin Platt. Despite Gail worrying about the gossiping and the misgiving of Brian's mother Ivy. Gail and Martin soon got together and moved in with each other and soon Gail fell unexpectedly pregnant by him. Gail didn't think it was fair for Martin to have a child at his age and confided in her friend Sally Webster and told her that she should plan to have an abortion. But Martin found out and convinced her to change her mind. Gail and Martin married in 1991, almost a year after she gave birth to her second son David. Also Gail and Martin moved out of the house she'd shared with Brian and bought their own home which was number eight Coronation Street. Although Gail was incensed to discover, just days after they moved in, that Ivy and Don were not moving out of the street as they had previously intended and believed that Ivy had deliberately changed her plans spite her Gail and Martin settled into number eight and gained an extra wage when Martin returned to work at the hospital.
Gail allowed Martin to adopt her other children. But Gail's ex mother in law Ivy deeply represented this and felt that her son Brian's memory would be forgotten and made attempts to prevent Martin's adoption of the children. When this failed she specified in her will that Nicky would only inherit if he changed his name back to "Tilsley" which he later did.
In 1992 Gail and Martin faced problems with the arrival of student nurse Carmel Finnan who was a regular babysitter for the couple and became infatuated with Martin. Carmel was visited to stay at number eight by Gail after she became uncomfortable living at the nurses' home but her interference created disagreements between Gail and Martin. Percy Sugden had overheard Carmel falsely passing off David as her own son. Things came to a head when Gail stayed overnight with her mother Audrey who was visiting a sick Alf Roberts in hospital, and Carmel climbed into the marital bed with a drunk Martin who rejected Carmel and ordered her to leave and Gail didn't believe her lies when she confessed her version of events. In 1993 Carmel claimed that she was pregnant with Martin's baby, driving a further wedge between Gail and Martin. After Gail confronted Carmel who had fallen down the stairs at her bedsit, the Platts discovered that Carmel was never pregnant and that mentally ill Carmel had spun another lie when living in Ireland.
Having overcome this, the next obstacle for Gail and Martin was eldest son Nick. Nick grew into his teens, he grew increasingly defiant towards his mother and Martin. This only got worse after the death of Nick's paternal grandmother Ivy when the clause in her will was revealed caused friction, culminating in Nick running away from home for several weeks. After Gail sent Nick away to Canada to live with her half brother Stephen, using his inheritance from Ivy to fund a private school for his his final year.
Another issue was the age gap between Gail and Martin. Martin was tempted by other women during their marriage. In 1994 he cheated on Gail with nurse Cathy Poweron a single occasion. Gail discovered what had happened through Alf who'd spotted the pair kissing. Gail forgave Martin his indiscretion after Martin assured her that he would never cheat again and she believed him.
In 1997 a mature Nick returned to Weatherfield but he shocked his mother by beginning a relationship with Leanne Battersby who Gail disapproved of due to her loutish family. A year after his return Nick married Leanne after secretly eloping to Gretna Green. Gail was aghast when she discovered this and Leanne and Gail would have a similar relationship that Gail had with her late mother in law Ivy occurred over the next couple of years. Nick and Leanne divorced after Nick encouraged Leanne to have an abortion. Although Gail was happy that the relationship was over, she lost Nick again when he returned to Canada following splitting up with Leanne.
Shortly after Sarah's thirteenth birthday, it was discovered that Sarah was pregnant. Gail had taken Sarah to the doctors as she was worried that her daughter maybe suffering from an eating disorder. Sarah was five months along and as a result of this it was too late for an abortion. Originally Gail and Martin conceived a plan for Gail to take the kids to Canada for a few months where Sarah could have the baby and Gail could pass it off as her own on returning to Weatherfield. This elaborated plan was abandoned after Sarah's schoolfriend Candice Stowe who Sarah had confided in about her pregnancy spread the news to Gail and Martin who were forced to accept that everyone was going to find out.
In 2000 Sarah gave birth to Gail's first granddaughter Bethany Platt and the family did their best to adjust to their new situation, although David felt deprived of attention and began acting out.
Martin began another affair with another nurse Rebecca Hopkins and this time it developed into much more than a one-off fling. Martin had fallen in love with Rebecca and decided to leave Gail for her but before he could Sarah's pregnancy was revealed and he was needed tobe at home. Rebecca grew tired waiting for Martin and not wanting to drag him away from his family she left him and emigrated for a job in Dubai. A devastated Martin then confessed his whole affair to Gail. For a few months Gail and Martin tried to make their marriage work for the sake of the children. Unfortunately they couldn't move past Martin's affair with Rebecca. In 2001 Martin moved out of the house and him and Gail divorced.
Gail moved on from Martin and married her third husband Richard Hillman which started from 2001 and ended in 2003.
Gail grew close to financial advisor Richard Hillman who had arrived in Weatherfield for the funeral of her friend Alma Halliwell who claimed was his cousin. Richard smooth talked Gail and whisked her off her feet and they began a relationship Gail's children were initially way of Richard and soon won them over and moved into the family home.
In 2002 Richard proposed to Gail and became her third husband, after which they departed for a family honeymoon to Florida. However, little did she know that her apparently perfect husband was actually a con man and serial killer.
Richard went into business with Duggie Ferguson to develop luxury flats and when Duggie fell through a bannister at the development during a row with Richard, Richard left him to die and took the opportunity to steal money from him. When Richard's ex-wife Patricia turned up and threatened to expose him as a con artistry and growing financial difficulties to Gail, he hit her over the head with a spade. Still in a financial hole, Richard attempted to kill Gail's own mother Audrey who ge was aware would leave behind a handsome inheritance. Richard attempted to fool both Audrey and the rest of the family that she was going senile over several months before setting her house on fire and staging it to look like a tragic accident. Audrey survived after Steve McDonald arrived at her house to return a pair of glasses she'd left in his taxi and realised the house was on fire. Audrey recovered , she had began suspecting that Richard was involved and attempted to tell Gail the truth, but Gail thinking that Audrey was going mad, and refused to believe her and cut her out of her life.
Richard then moved onto target Emily Bishop who he'd conned into an equity release scheme. When neighbour Maxine Peacock interrupted Richard's attempt to kill Emily, he was forced to attack her and did it with a crowbar. Emily survived but Maxine sadly died. A guilty Richard attempted to avoid Maxine's funeral but he was dragged there by Gail and inadvertently ended up speaking at the service. Audrey had realised that Richard was also responsible for Maxine's murder and confronted him at the graveside but nobody expect Norris Cole and Archie Shuttleworth believed her, again Gail insisted that she should stay away from her and the children.
At the same time an elderly client of Richard's had died of nature causes leaving him a big pay-out and rendering his attempt on Emily's life and murdering of Maxine as unnecessary . Gail and Richard had planned to sell up and move to a bigger house on the other side of Weatherfield but then Gail herself began to suspect her husband who was more than what he seemed so she decided to challenge him with the suspicions that were on her mind. Richard soon confessed everything to Gail what he'd done the murders, attempted murders and also was being a serial con artist. She was absolutely horrified and branded him as ' Norman Bates with a briefcase' and Gail then proceeded to throw him out before informing the police of Richard's crimes. With Richard vanished into the night, Gail called on Audrey for help and the pair reconciled as Audrey was right all along. Gail and her family were forced to stay temporarily at Audrey's when the press descended on their house.
Also Gail faced angry of the community as Richard's crimes had now become public knowledge. Maxine's grieving widower Ashley lashed out at her as well as Vera and Jack Duckworth who had been swindled of their life savings by Richard sold a story attacking Gail in the Weatherfield Gazette. The gossip had travelled fast and reached David's school where he had become a target of buly Mark Conlan who beat David up as well as spitting in Gail's face on the street.
Just as Gail was moving on with her life, Richard returned to Weatherfield he tied and gagged Gail along with the children and put them in the family car and revealed his plans to kill them in a murder-suicide by gassing them. When this attempt was disturbed by David and Sarah who had untied themselves with the help of their mother. Richard tried another attempt to kill them all by driving the family into the Weatherfield canal. As he drove into the canal Gail, Sarah, and David screamed and shouted to Gail " I love you!"
Martin, Kevin Webster, and Tommy Harris followed Richard and the Platt family to the canal and rescued Gail and children when they had gone into the canal. As for Richard he'd drowned. Gail accompained with Audrey went to identify Richard's body. While she was there Gail threw her wedding rings from Richard into the canal, hoping to put the trauma she'd gone through to rest with Richard.
Unfortunately for Gail she fund out that Richard had left her with big debts and all of her money was gone as everything in their accounts was frozen. Gail was faced with financial ruin and looked set to loose her house. However, Audrey saved the day and she used her savings to buy the house for Gail, allowing the family to remain at number eight Coronation Street.
With Richard out of her life for good she decided to move on and start new chapter in her life and that was by marrying Joe McIntyre who became husband number four.
Gail had taken a shine to Tina McIntyre's dad Joe, after David and Tina had spilt up. Gail and Joe had gone on several dates because they didn't want their relationship to become the gossip of the street.
Unfortunately after the Windass family had moved onto the street, Gail faced several issues with them. The Windasses were refusing to pay for a kitchen that Joe had fitted. Joe, Tina, and David tore out the kitchen in retaliation. David and Gary later came to blows over Tina. Eventually the families were able to form a truce. However, for Gail and Joe there were further problems as Joe had injured his back at work and subsequently had become an addict and was taking prescriptions painkillers. Desperate Joe was arrested after breaking into the medical centre where Gail worked and was looking for drugs. Joe was sentenced to do community service. Things seemed to be looking up for Joe as he got the help that he desperately needed for his addiction. He then proposed to Gail.
In 2010 Gail married Joe who became her fourth husband. Their martial bliss was short lived as Joe was I significant debt and as a last resort he was planning to fake his own death by staging a drowning in Lake Windermere. Gail was horrified by Joe's plans and desperately tried to talk him out of it unfortunately he went ahead with it anyway and intentionally died in the process by drowning in the lake. Believing that Joe had faked her own death. Gail called David for assistance and the pair covered up Joe's disappearance by lying to his daughter Tina. However, when Joe's body was discovered in the lake, the memories of what happened in her previous marriage with her ex-husband Richard who tried to drown her and the family in the Weatherfield canal all those memories came flooding back and began to haunt her.
Gail was falsely arrested for Joe's murder and was denied bail. Her cellmate was Lyn Fulwood who she was first wary of but later they got on well with each other. At her trial Gail was found not guilty for Joe's murder by the jury.
Her current husband Michael Rodwell became her fifth husband which began from 2014 and ended in 2015.
in 2014 Gail called Michael Rodwell who turned up at number eight pretending to be a gas man checking for a leak but soon Gail discovered that he was burglar. Realising that Gail had seen through him . Michael made a quick get away and was chased by Kylie but he managed to escape in his van. The following month Michael appeared in court and was sentenced to twelve months in prison. Gail was hit hard by the incident to the point that she found it difficult to be in her own home. She decided to meet Michael in prison and to put her mind at rest. For the first time in almost three months the pair had a face-to-face meeting, with Gail speaking candidly about how she'd been affected. Full of guilt Michael apologised to Gail for his actions. The couple grew close after his release and eventually Michael moved into number eight.
In 2015 Michael proposed to Gail however she was taken aback by the proposal and Michael was worried that he had rushed into things and that she would leave him. Michael discovered that he wasn't Gail's first husband and had been married four times previously who consisted of Brian Tilsley, Martin Platt, Richard Hillman, and Joe McIntyre. Before she got married she started out as Gail Potter.
However, that evening Gail turned the tables and proposed to Michael. The celebrations were cut short when Michael collapsed as the family celebrated at Nick's Bistro and he was rushed to Weatherfield General Hospital.
The couple arranged their wedding to take place in March, but Gail arrived late at the registry office when Michael's real son Gavin arrived at the house moments before she was due to leave for the ceremony. Gail had learnt that Andy Carver was pretending to be Gavin and Michael had no idea what was going on Gail chose to keep this secret and after eventually convincing Michael that she loved him, Gail and Michael decided to reschedule their wedding for the following month. After the real Gavin had died in a car crash Andy and Gail were forced to deepen their conspiracy which Gail believed was in Michael's best interest as feared that he might have another heart attack if he discovered the truth. Gail had to go to significant lengths changing Andy's national details on the Bistro computer and preventing Michael from seeing an obituary to Gavin and his aunt Barbara when she visited number eight to inform him of the details of the funeral.
At same time Gail's granddaughter Bethany returned to Weatherfield after being kicked out of school in Italy. Gail came face-to-face with Bethany in the Rovers, where she'd lied about her age to get served. Bethany had stolen money from her mother Sarah and had lied to her about her whereabouts. Also Sarah arrived a few days later to take Bethany back home to Italy but when Sarah had lost her high-flying job with Stephen, also the pair moved into number eight.
In April Gail and Michael finally get married. While exchanging their vows, Gail broke and ran off. After a heart-to-heart with Michael, she eventually decided she was up to it and rushed through the ceremony, so that she could at last get to become " Mrs Gail Rodwell" the reception ended in disaster when Gail's granddaughter Bethany got drunk and destroyed the buffet, so Gail and Michael decided to go home. The marriage didn't last long as Michael's ex-wife Susan Meldrum sent Michael a photograph album so that he could look back over his son's pictures as he grew older. Despite Gail and Andy's attempts to seize the album it fell into Michael's hands and as Michael scanned through the photographs he noticed that the real Gavin looked different to the one in the room. After Andy confessed that he wasn't Michael's son the trio argued and Gail was forced to own up that she knew about it but kept the matter secret because of Michael's heart condition. Michael became angry at this betrayal and decided to move out of number eight and temporarily took up residence at number eleven with Gail's nemesis Eileen Grimshaw who was supportive and sympathetic towards Michael's plight. After Michael suffered a heart attack Gail discovered that Eileen had made a move on Michael and the pair get into a fight. Ultimately however, Gail and Michael reconciled after Michael's brief relationship with Eileen was ruined by serial killer Pat Phelan and was aided by Kylie. Gail and Michael soon realised that they still held a torch for each other.
But for Gail, Michael was murdered by Pat Phelan and made her a widow. After being married five times she decided to remain single and focus on herself and her family. As her marriages had just left her heartbroken and couldn't bear to think of having another relationship with someone and she couldn't even think of getting married again! But she Michael Rodwell's surname so that her memories of him would stay alive.