Coronation Street star James Cartwright halted a live interview to make an unexpected admission on Wednesday (July 2).

The 40-year-old actor, who portrays Theo Silverton in the beloved ITV soap, appeared on today's Lorraine to talk about his character's upcoming storylines.

However, the interview took a surprising turn when James made a confession that left host Lorraine Kelly utterly speechless.

"It's so good to see you," Lorraine warmly greeted, to which James responded: "It's a tonic, Lorraine."

Reflecting on a scene where his character Theo experiences a panic attack, James confessed: "I must admit, I nearly had a panic attack coming on here this morning, because I have a confession to make," reports Leicestershire Live.

He then revealed his secret, saying: "My confession is that you're my celebrity crush," prompting a flustered Lorraine to exclaim: "Oh, behave!"

James continued: "Literally since I was in shorts and you were in shoulder pads. I remember I'd sit with my grandma, and we'd sit and watch you on telly. Oh gosh, you're brilliant, you're bright, you're effervescent... Anyway, I had to tell you that."

Lorraine, taken aback, replied: "Oh, bless you! Weird celebrity crushes. That's funny."

In another part of their conversation, James hinted at a "dark" twist for Todd Grimshaw as his relationship with Theo unfolds on Coronation Street.

Todd and Theo's paths crossed for the first time in March, where it was revealed that Theo is married to a woman called Danielle (Natalie Anderson) and they share two children.

Theo then opened up to Todd about the immense pressure from his deeply religious family, leading to his harrowing experience with conversion therapy in his youth.

"This idea that you can change your sexuality, you can't change your sexuality no more than you can change the colour of your eyes," James said on today's Lorraine.

"It is what it is, and I think it's an interesting thing to explore in terms of the majority of people not knowing it is a thing, but it is a thing."

Lorraine added: "You wouldn't, you absolutely wouldn't, and that's why it's so important that Corrie are tackling something like this because they do it so well."

James went on to tease possible danger for Todd after fans have expressed worry for the character in recent months.

Theo's behaviour has raised concern as he has repeatedly lashed out at those around him, as well as taking out his frustration on himself.

"You can't tell us too much, but it is going to get a little bit dark with you and the triangle and Todd," Lorraine said.

James responded: "I think it goes that way. The thing with Theo is he's a very complicated man and although I don't think he's malicious, I don't think he's a psychopath or a sociopath or anything like that, but he's a complicated man.

"People with baggage, what you realise as you get older is they don't change. You want to change them, you can't change them. But you love them, what do you do?"

Coronation Street airs at 8pm on Monday, Wednesday and Friday on ITV1 and is available to stream from 7am on ITVX

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