Corrie’s Samia Longchambon recalls the ‘stressful’ Christmas she juggled cooking with breastfeeding

Coronation Street’s Samia Longchambon has revealed she’s no stranger to a chaotic Christmas, as she recalled the ‘stressful’ year she juggled cooking dinner with breastfeeding her baby son.

The actress, 38, who plays Maria Connor on the soap, told MailOnline she’s expecting this year’s festive meal to be ‘a breeze’ as it’ll only be herself, husband Sylvain, her daughter Freya, 11, and their son Yves, five.

Samia will take centre stage on the Corrie cobbles this Christmas as Maria finally discovers the true extent of her husband Gary Windass’ crimes, and throws him out after he come up with a reason why he’s not responsible for Rick Neelan’s death.

Speaking to MailOnline about her plans for the festive season, Samia said: ‘I love cooking Christmas dinner actually, I really enjoy it, obviously it’ll probably just be the four of us this year.

‘I’ve cooked in the past, about 14 people one year. It was a bit stressful it was the year that I had just had Yves so he was only three months old.

‘Also Sylvain’s family came over from France and they’ve not experienced an English Christmas before either so I was trying to like pull out all the stops while breastfeeding Yves so I think this year will be a breeze.’

She added: ‘I’m a bit of a homebird anyway. I don’t tend to go out lots, things I’ll miss are like taking the kids to see pantos and going to the Christmas markets and things like that. 

‘I love the build-up to Christmas actually, I probably enjoy the build up more than the actual day in some ways, so I’m gonna miss all that a lot this year, but I’m happy to be at home with the kids and just getting all cosy and eat drink and be merry at home.’

Samia also chatted about Corrie’s upcoming festive scenes, as Maria confronts Gary after overhearing him confess to Rick’s murder.

Despite Gary insisting he wasn’t responsible, Maria refuses to listen, and kicks him out after calling the police.

Samia said: ‘I don’t think Maria is surprised by anything that happens with Gary anymore, and we saw that after the honeymoon when they came back, she was questioning him about some credit card bills that she found… so she knows that he keeps things from her.

‘But this is huge and she knows that he is a lot of things but she doesn’t think he’s a murderer and so this is kind of the first time that she’s like actually ”what the hell’s going on, why are you being questioned about a man’s disappearance” could he actually be capable of murder?

‘I don’t think she truly believes that you could murder somebody but the doubts are creeping in.

‘She’s annoyed with him and obviously even though Sarah is a friend she’s still quite wary of their relationship. 

‘So when she walks into the house and hears Sarah accusing him of killing Rick, it takes her aback a bit and then later, she questions Gary about it.’

She added: ‘I think it’s really pushing it to the edge with him, I don’t think it’s looking good for them because of the level of trust that she hasn’t gotten anymore because of all this she just knows deep down he’s fighting something from her and that something’s so serious.’ 

Fans will have to wait and see whether the police finally catch up with Gary during the Christmas season, and if he and Maria can salvage their relationship after less than a year in happy matrimony.

Coronation Street airs on Christmas Day at 7pm on ITV.