Coronation Street stars confirm end of Ryan Connor and Alya Nazir's romance
Coronation Street spoilers follow.
Coronation Street stars Ryan Prescott and Sair Khan have confirmed the end of Ryan Connor and Alya Nazir's romantic relationship.
The on-off couple have once again been contemplating their future following Alya's vow to stand by Ryan through his recovery from the acid attack a few weeks ago.
In Monday's (April 17) episode, the 'will they / won't they' romance seemingly came to an end once Ryan confessed that he was still very much in love with Alya.
While Alya promised to always stand by her ex-boyfriend, she admitted she no longer had romantic feelings for him. Now, Ryan Prescott and Sair Khan have opened up about the complicated feelings Ryan and Alya have.
"It’s been incredibly difficult for Alya to see Ryan this way and the shock of the event has really hit her," Sair said. "She saw him earlier in the day, before the acid attack, and everything was fine and then so quickly, his life changed. A lot of the residents on Coronation Street have been through life-changing events but Ryan’s is one that is so physical and so painful and Alya has never seen or experienced something like this before.
"She is trying to be sensitive but she’s in shock, seeing someone she cares about so deeply in so much pain. It’s been really difficult for her and it’s been quite hard for her to hide her reaction."
Her co-star added: "Ryan has an overwhelming fear that he will never be loved or be intimate with someone again, so he reached out and tried to grasp at everything around him – one of those things being the relationship with Alya. He is in this whirlwind of emotions and the loneliness he is feeling is one of the things that pushed him to take his chance again with Alya."
All of the trauma surrounding the acid attack finally spurred Ryan on to share his true feelings with Alya, leading the latter to feel incredibly conflicted.
Sair explained: "Alya was quite taken aback because she wasn’t expecting it and all her focus has been on making him feel comfortable and just trying to put a smile on his face.
"There always has been such warmth between them, but Alya realised quite quickly that it could be easy to misconstrue the way that things have been playing out between them. She thinks that, deep down, love is the last thing on Ryan’s mind."
Ryan went on: "Ryan does love Alya and he has always loved Alya. I don’t think that has changed and before the acid attack happened they had a little one-night stand situation and even then Ryan said to Alya, 'Would you consider getting back together?' Alya didn’t think it was a good idea and so he took that hit before and he already knows where he stands with Alya.
"But after the acid attack, he is on damage control and because he feels like no one will ever love him again, he is desperate to reach out to the first place that he feels love and that place is Alya. He tries to hold on to that as tight as he can and in doing so ends up pushing it away even further and reconfirming that it’s not going to happen like that."
Viewers saw Ryan try to put on a brave face following the romantic rejection, but he was understandably crushed by Alya's response.
"Ryan was gutted," Ryan explained. "It’s the icing on the cake and when Alya shoots him down, even though it’s in a really nice way, it’s the reconfirmation of, 'No one is going to love me. No one is going to accept me.' Having someone to love is a huge driving factor in Ryan’s life and he now starts to think that he is never going to have that again. He is so vulnerable and so alone in this state."
However, Sair stressed that Alya has "so much love" for her former flame, even if it's not romantic love at this point.
"He has been there for her through her darkest moments, like everything that happened with Geoff, and he has brought out a fun side of Alya but he has also betrayed her in a very cruel way," she said. "Maybe that was more Daisy’s fault, when she was trying to be a bit tricky with him, but I don’t think that changes how much that hurt Alya. Alya is also struggling with a lot of her own feelings in the aftermath of her attack.
"I don’t think she has the capacity to love in the way that she would want to love him and she isn’t open to receiving any kind of love at the moment herself."
Alya ultimately makes the valid point that Ryan may be confusing his fear of being alone with wanting to reconcile with her.
"Before the acid attack happened, Alya saw a glimpse of happiness in Ryan’s eyes when he was talking about going to Ibiza and following his dreams," Sair said.
"She saw that he wasn’t tied to the street and that there were adventures out there for him outside of their messy relationship and she was genuinely happy for him. Now after the acid attack, Ryan is completely vulnerable, his mum is not around and he doesn’t have that much family.
"Alya feels like she is one of the closest things to family that Ryan has on the street and he needs that support so much so Alya thinks that Ryan has confused that love and affection for romantic love. Alya realises that it’s not about her, it’s about his emotions and what he is going through."
Ryan pointed out that this rejection is one of many factors "that will impact Ryan’s mindset and recovery", along with connecting with Ibiza DJ Crystal and bonding with Daisy.
As for whether this will be the end of the road for the popular couple, Sair said: "For now, it is the end for Ryan and Alya because as soon as Ryan tells Alya that he loves her, Alya has to put up a boundary to protect herself from getting hurt again and from hurting him by giving him mixed signals. She feels she has to protect any thread of friendship that they could possibly have by taking a step back from his healing and letting other people take the lead on it.
"This is hard and heartbreaking for Alya to come to terms with because she just wants to be there for him and she doesn’t know what Ryan’s response to her taking a step back is going to be.
"Alya also needs to do a lot of healing herself; she has pretended that she is completely fine after her attack but she is playing a good game and just pretending that she is okay. When Alya sees Ryan so vulnerable, it is quite triggering for her, so she feels like she needs to create a bit of a distance between them out of love."
Coronation Street airs on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays at 8pm on ITV1 and streams on ITVX.
Read more Coronation Street spoilers on our dedicated homepage
Coronation Street has been working on Ryan's storyline with guidance from The Katie Piper Foundation and Acid Survivors Trust International (ASTI), which both offer help and support to real-life survivors.
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