Corrie legend Samia Longchambon reveals how TikTok has earned her 'street cred' with her daughter

Samia Longchambon has earned some "street cred" with her daughter because of TikTok.

The 42-year-old actress - who has Freya, 15, from her first marriage to Matthew Smith and Yves, eight, with 'Dancing on Ice' pro Sylvain Longchambon - has played hairdresser Maria Connor on 'Coronation Street' for nearly 25 years but it is only now that her character's son Liam Connor Jr. (Charlie Wrenshall) has gone viral on TikTok amid a bullying storyline that she has become "cool-ish" to her children.

She told Inside Soap: "It’s given me some street cred with my daughter Freya for the first time ever! She’s 15 now and her friends are coming up to her in school wanting to talk about it. It went viral on TikTok because Charlie’s quite cool with the teenagers, and now Freya thinks I’m cool-ish! My son [Yves] will be nine in September, so he’s totally aware of the show too."

The character of Maria has been through a number of storylines throughout the years and reflected that she is now "happy" with where her alter-ego has ended up even though it is not really where she initially assumed she would go.

She said: "When I joined the show, she was a kennel maid, and the description for my audition was ‘a female version of Tyrone!’ So, she’s definitely not turned out the way that I thought! Alan [Halsall] and I used to have matching outfits, and she would definitely not be matching her outfit to Tyrone’s now! I’m happy with how Maria’s turned out with the unit she has with Gary (Mikey North) and Liam – it’s nice to have a solid Corrie family.