Speaking on today’s edition of Good Morning Britain, the 54-year-old said that the departure was due to her character changing over time.
“That was the thing, she was a different character to what I was usually perceived as playing. But I thought she was such a natural character and such a proper Coronation Street character and then she started changing a bit,” she told hosts Kate Garraway and Ben Shephard.
The actress added: “She had no family, she was a bit of a pinball bounding about, so she kind of changed a bit and I thought, ‘Right, this isn’t the character that originally started’.”
However, she said that it was “great fun” and “totally iconic” playing the feisty character for three years after initially being brought in for just 12 weeks.
Claire admitted that prior to joining Coronation Street, she had a “bucket list” which included walking on the cobbles and pulling pints in the Rovers Return.
The Bradford-born star explained: “I got to work with a lot of old friends that I’d worked with way back.
“Jimmi [Harkishin who plays Dev Alahan] and I used to work together 35 years ago on something called South of the Border, I played his secretary.”
Claire’s exit from Coronation Street is set to be aired tomorrow night when the truth comes out about Eric’s infidelity with Kevin Webster (played by Michael Le Vell).
But the soap star is set to have a busy autumn after Coronation Street, saying that she had a film and a documentary coming out.
Coronation Street will be getting even more explosive this year after actress Nicola Thorp said that the show would be “making history” with a huge storyline.
“What’s going to happen over the next few months will genuinely make soap history. When I read the scripts I get very excited,” Nicola teased.
Coronation Street continues on ITV tomorrow night at 7.30pm.
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