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Darren Dobbs was the husband of Jackie Dobbs and the legal (but non-biological) father of Tyrone Dobbs.

At some point in his youth Darren met the troublesome Jackie and the pair married. The marriage wasn't strong and was filled with adultery and betrayal from both sides, which would lead to the pair repeatedly breaking up and eventually getting back together again. One such break-up occurred in 1982 when Jackie, who was desperate for a child, blamed Darren for his lack of interest in conceiving - this break-up led to Darren leaving for a while, and when he finally returned in December, he was shocked to discover Jackie with a newborn baby - Tyrone.

Darren knew that the baby wasn't his and likely wasn't Jackie's either, as he had seen her the week before at a Christmas party where she was "skinny as a rake" and rotten drunk. However, he decided to stay silent and take the child on as his own due to the perks of receiving better benefits from the council.

As Jackie continued to filter in and out of prison her relationship with Darren became even more estranged. By March 1998, Jackie was in prison again - having attacked Darren's latest fling in a fit of rage. Jackie was later released from Redford Prison in November 1998, but was unable to go home as Darren had moved the fling, now his girlfriend, into their house and kicked her out. She turned up on the doorstep of ex-cellmate Deirdre Rachid and begged to be given somewhere to stay until she found her feet - but circumstances worsened the following week when Darren also threw Tyrone out.

Taking advantage of Deirdre's hospitality at 17 Victoria Street, the pair were eventually asked to leave and began squatting at 7 Coronation Street in the absence of owner Curly Watts.

When Curly returned from Australia in the following March, he was horrified to find Jackie and her son in his house. Aided by his friend Spider Nugent, Curly did everything in his power to try and evict the pair, including stealing the television and attempting to get another set of keys copied. Jackie eventually contacted Darren again and enlisted him to help "deal" with Curly and Spider, warning the pair of Darren's violent nature. However, when Darren turned up at No.7 he surprised everyone by apologising for Jackie and his son's behaviour before taking the pair back to live with him, having reassured them that his girlfriend was history. Tyrone was soon sleeping rough again when he revealed that Jackie had returned to prison for beating up the ex-girlfriend.

Darren and Jackie remained together for some time after she was once again released from prison. However, the pair had split up by August 2008 - when she returned to Weatherfield in order to get money from Tyrone to pay one of Darren's friends called Brian.

Darren was back in Tyrone's life in September 2018 as he attended Jackie's will reading two months following her passing. Following the will reading in which he was left a cheap ring Jackie bought on a stall, he quickly made his leave without sticking around to speak to Tyrone. Later in the day he was called to Tyrone's household by Tyrone's girlfriend Fiz Stape, as they had accidentally ruined a tape that Jackie had left Tyrone which contained a confession, and was suspicious that Darren himself knew the contents. After much probing, he revealed to Tyrone that he wasn't his dad. He then dropped a further bombshell, that Jackie may not be his mother.

Darren Dobbs

James McMartin as Darren in 1999.

List of appearances[]

1999

2018

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