Coronation Street star announces exit amid backlash as Mick's final scenes air

Joe Layton has confirmed that he has left Coronation Street.

The actor made his debut as evil Mick Michaelis in February along with his wife Lou (Farrel Hegarty) and both he and his wife have stirred things up in Weatherfield. Over the short amount of time, Mick made an enemy of various Weatherfield residents, and in May, he was jailed for the murder of PC Craig Tinker ( Colson Smith ).

Prior to that, a flashback episode confirmed that after Mick had gone to prison for a crime Kit Green committed, and had become an enemy of the policeman in the process. But things were made worse when Mick discovered that Kit and Lou had conceived a baby when he was behind bars, meaning that teenager Brody was not his son as he had initially thought.

In the present day, things escalated hugely when Mick managed to escape from prison and a factory roof tussle between him and Kit ended in a near-fatal stabbing, so the copper had to undergo life-saving surgery. And when Mick was finally back in jail, one viewer took to X to pray that was finally the murderer's last scene after so much drama.

Confirming that his exit has indeed aired, he replied: "Affirmative! loved my time on the cobbles!" and then began to receive praise from fans over his performance. His time on ITV's flagship soap may have been short, but when one fan claimed that the TV star was "going to go on do brilliant things with his career" after such an "impactful" stint, he replied: "Thanks so much! It has been a total pleasure. Over and out from Mick!"

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In Joe's final scenes, he was seen cutting off all contact with a heartbroken Brody. Despite always admiring the man he thought was his dad, Mick called him from his cell to coldly tell him that they would never speak again. He also instructed him to no longer call him dad.

Standing in the ginnel on the phone to Mick, Brody heard: "You seriously think I wanna see you again after this? I'm not your dad, mate. Don't you dare call me that ever again, do you hear me? I'm not your dad. And I never was."

Mick told Brody that while his mother and his sisters may still be family, he was "disgusted" by Brody because of his real father. Mick hung up before smuggling his phone away in his cell.

Fans will also be aware that Lou, who is also set to leave the serial after mere months, is currently in prison after she attacked Gary Windass ( Mikey North ) following a failed attempt to blackmail him for money. But in fresh heartbreak for Brody, Kit hadn't accepted Brody as his own son and in the latest instalment of ITV's flagship soap, he told Bernie so.

Unfortunately, Brody was standing in the doorway and overheard but despite constant reassurance from his grandmother, he stormed out. Through tears, he stood with Bernie in the hospital car park and told her that he "doesn't care" anymore.

At the end of the day, Bernie returned to Kit's beside. The Roy's Rolls employee, having only been revealed as Kit's long-lost mother just over a year ago, tried to push for her son to accept his paternity. But Kit decided to push Bernie away even further.

The matriarch, who settled into Weatherfield in 2019, dealt with tragedy when her other son Paul Foreman (Peter Ash) died last year following a battle with MND. And just before Bernie left Kit's side, he simply told her that Brody will not be a "replacement" for her amid her grief.

But Joe's time in Corrie hasn't always been easy because of his bad boy status. “I got a lot of hate online in the form of comments or tweets or direct messages,” Joe recalled. “I think everybody just thought ‘There’s no room for this guy on the street, we don’t like him, get rid, we wish that you’d never existed as an actor or a person!’ Because Corrie is such a staple in so many people’s day to day and because it’s been on so long, there’s sometimes a fine line separating reality and your character."

Coronation Street airs Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays at 8pm on ITV1 and ITV X. * Follow Mirror Celebs and TV on TikTok, Snapchat, Instagram, Twitter , Facebook, and Threads.