Coronation Street’s Debbie Webster was revealed to be the biological mother of Carl Webster on Thursday’s epsiode of the soap but some fans knew it was coming all along

There was a huge revelation on Thursday’s episode of Coronation Street as Debbie Webster was confirmed to be the biological mother of Carl. The hotelier, who is played by Sue Devaney, has always been said to have been the half-sister of Carl, but history was completely rewritten in the latest instalment of the world’s longest-running TV soap.

Kevin and Debbie are the children of Alison Webster, who died in 1980 but never appeared on the programme, and the late Bill Webster. In 1985, Bill married Elaine Prior and the pair of them moved to Southport along with Debbie, during which time she presumably gave birth to Carl at the age of 18, whilst Kevin stayed behind.

Debbie made her return to Weatherfield in 2019, and Carl turned up towards the end of last year, having lived in Germany most of his life. In the programme’s historic crossover with Emmerdale, billed as Corriedale, a drunken Carl had Debbie in the passenger seat of his car as he crashed on a dark country road, causing the death of kindly vicar Billy Mayhew (Daniel Brocklebank).

Viewers have become increasingly annoyed with Carl as, not only did he ruthlessly move her to the driving seat when she was out cold, he has since let her take the blame and she was up in court, where she pled guilty to all charges. Following that, at home, she looked through a memory box with a baby hospital band on it that revealed she was Carl’s mother.

Fans instantly took to social media to discuss the twist, and it does seem that the signs have been there for a while. As one viewer put it, “Most viewers figured out the real connection a while ago!”

Just months after he arrived in Weatherfield, Carl started up an affair with his apparent sister-in-law Abi, and they made a habit of meeting at Carl’s room at the Chariot Square, which Debbie owns. Initially, Debbie had worked it all out after looking at her CCTV but kept turning a blind eye to it.

Carl, who had also been executing a string of dodgy deals whilst employed at Kevin’s garage and it recently emerged that he had ran Tyrone Dobbs (Alan Halsall) over, in a move that confined Kevin’s best friend and colleague to a wheelchair. Following his ill-fated stint at Webster’s Autocentre, Carl got a job at Debbie’s hotel but instantly started conning his supposed-sister out of thousands of pounds, which he planned to use to flee back to Germany before Abi got her hands on it, using it to pay her own debts as an act of revenge.

One fan wrote on Reddit: “Surely Kevin or someone else would be able to work it out soon. I mean why else would Debbie keep defending him when he slept with his brother’s wife and ruined his family, stole £18,000 from her that he was planning to use to flee the country, caused a massive crash that killed someone because he was drunk driving and then shifted her in to the driver seat so she could take the blame and potentially go to prison, and he also crippled Tyrone. That’s a list that only a mother would be able to forgive.”

Debbie’s forgiveness seemingly knows no bounds, as she previously shrugged off Carl’s theft when Abi confessed all to her, and at the end of Thursday’s episode, she begged him to cancel his plans to leave the country, which he agreed to. It all comes after Carl received the news that Elaine, the woman he thought was his mum, died without informing him she was ill. He was left outraged when he discovered a post-it note revealing that Debbie had spoken to Elaine and failed to tell him, all of which prompted him to get behind the wheel drunk in the first place.

Another fan wrote: “SUSSED…. Debbie is actually Carls mother, she’s going to sacrifice herself to save him… she had him under age, and their mother decided, to save shame on family, to bring him up as her sister instead. That’s why Debbie didn’t give the note from his grand ‘mother’.”

Another said: “Debbie’s doing it all to protect her son if only she knew what a scum bag Carl really is!” But some fans weren’t sure about the twist, as they immediately questioned the paternity of Carl and wondered why Bill, who lived in Germany on and off until his 2018 death, would have brought Carl up without saying anything. What’s more, it was never mentioned when he made sporadic returns to Weatherfield throughout the 2000s.

One fan wrote on Reddit: “So who on earth is Carl’s dad? This needs addressing ASAP because they can’t just ignore the fact that Carl’s dad was previously said to be Bill Webster, the father of Debbie and Kevin. There’s going to be a lot of explaining needed to get round this one,” and another replied: “Yep that’s what is bugging me who is Carls Dad, and did Bill & Elaine just bring him up then. He was born 1986 don’t know how old Debbie was then or what she was up to!”

Other viewers had worked it out, with one writing on X: “I knew it!!!! I said from the start that Debbie had a secret!!!” and another said: “What a surprise, said no one ever,” and third said: “Thought it was pretty obvious he was her son, with how she always favoured him.” Another said: “Yeah they weren’t hiding this well. It was the only obvious answer to why she was risking everything.”