Coronation Street favourite Dee-Dee Bailey (Channique Sterling-Brown) has the chance of romance in upcoming episodes. But bearing in mind the fact that she’s just settling into motherhood after a complicated start with her baby Laila, embarking on a new relationship is a tricky thing to navigate.

And there’s also the fact that she was left badly traumatised by how her last relationship turned out.

Dee-Dee fell for fellow solicitor Joel Deering (Calum Lill), but it wasn’t long before she discovered he was married and had a child. He insisted he and his wife were separated and she confirmed this and insisted Joel was a good man, but it took a while for him to regain Dee-Dee’s trust.

Eventually the pair got engaged. Deeply religious Dee-Dee believed that sex before marriage was wrong, but Joel persuaded her otherwise.

It was eventually revealed to viewers that Joel was the person who was behind the disappearance of Lauren Bolton (Cait Fitton) – something Roy Cropper (David Neilson) had been imprisoned for. As Lauren’s story was uncovered it became clear that Joel was a sick and twisted man.

When Dee-Dee discovered his crimes she was obviously appalled – and even more so because she was by then pregnant with his child. The knowledge of what Joel had done meant that Dee-Dee initially felt she wouldn’t be able to bond with the baby, Laila, and she decided to give her up for adoption.

After much soul-searching she recently decided she wanted to be Laila’s mum. She’s now co-parenting her with her brother James (Jason Callender), who had wanted to adopt her.

This is all a lot of baggage to take into a new relationship, so in upcoming episodes when Dee-Dee realises that she’s very attracted to Ollie, a new client and someone who previously flirted with her in the Rovers, she’s hesitant to act on it.

She tells Alya (Sair Khan) she really likes Ollie, but there’s a conflict of interest because of him being a client. She tells Ollie it wouldn’t be right to get into a relationship with him, but when he goes to kiss her she kisses him back, letting her heart rule her head for once.

She tells him she’s going to need to take things slowly, and later reaffirms this to James. She tells her brother she really likes this new man she’s met, but she’s wary of getting her heart broken again.

There’s also Laila to consider, and when Ollie spots Dee-Dee in the shop with her daughter in her pram, Dee-Dee asks him to meet her for a drink later so she can explain about her home situation.