Gary Windass Gary Windass is the only son of Eddie and Anna Windass . Once a rogue , Gary was often in trouble with the law and spent time in prison , but eventually decided to turn his life around and joined the army . However , he was discharged from the forces after suffering from Post Traumatic Stress Disorder and assaulting a police officer , so returned to life in Weatherfield . Gary had a relationship with Izzy Armstrong who he met while on leave from the army , and their wish to have a baby was granted by Tina McIntyre who acted as a surrogate . A year after their son Jake was born , Gary and Izzy broke up and he started dating Alya Nazir . Despite her family ' s initial disapproval of the relationship , Gary proposed to Alya , but their engagement broke off after he discovered she had sex with Jason Grimshaw . Alya ' s grandfather Sharif gave Gary a share of V Court Fitness as an early wedding present , and Gary currently works as manager of the gym having previously worked as a labourer . He lives at 19a Rosamund Street with Anna and adoptive sister Faye . Biography . 1986 - 2009 : Criminal lifestyle . Gary was born in 1986 to Eddie and Anna . During his younger years he was a troublemaker , and spent some time in a young offenders institute . His somewhat criminal lifestyle continued into his adult life , and he often hung around with his uncle Len who was the source of his scrapes and where he got his ideas from . By 2008 Gary was under a suspended sentence for assault . In November 2008 , the Windass family refused to pay for a kitchen fitted by Joe McIntyre . This resulted in Joe ' s daughter Tina , along with David Platt and Graeme Proctor , ripping out the kitchen and setting it on fire . Gary and Len destroyed the Platts ' kitchen in retaliation , and this caused an ongoing feud between the two families . By coincidence they ended up living next door to each other after Eddie and Anna rented 6 Coronation Street from Jerry Morton . Gail Platt and Anna tried to keep their respective families civil with each other , and Gail invited the Windasses to spend Christmas Day at 8 Coronation Street , but they were thrown out after Gary flirted with Tina . In January 2009 , Gary taunted David about his relationship with Tina , and also with details about his dodgy past . As Gary continued to goad David , a fight broke out after David punched him , which resulted in Gary beating David up and landing him in hospital . Gary faced a charge of grievous bodily harm as a result of the fight , and Tina , having witnessed it was under pressure to lie for David by saying that Gary had thrown the first punch . However , when the matter was seen in Weatherfield Crown Court , Tina decided to tell the truth and Gary was acquitted . This also caused Tina to end her relationship with David . Over the next few months , David and Gary seemed to put the past behind them and became friendly . However , David came up with a plan to have Gary sent to prison as revenge for beating him up , and also because he didn ' t want Gary and Tina to end up together . Unbeknownst to Gary , David staged a burglary at his grandmother Audrey Roberts ' house whilst she was away . David planned to have Graeme keep watch and call the police when Gary entered the house , but instead he ran into Ted Page who was house - sitting for Audrey . Gary fled from the house , which caused Ted to suffer a heart attack . As a consequence Gary spent two months in Highfield Prison for the incident . In August 2009 , David was attacked and beaten up again the day before Gary was released from prison . David initially suspected Jason Grimshaw of the assault but when Gary saw David he made it clear he ' d arranged to have him beaten , and warned him to steer clear of him in future now that they were even . 2010 : Army career . Following his release from prison , Gary struggled to get a job . In November 2009 Gary made a disparaging comment about the armed forces after seeing Ted Page wearing a poppy , but regretted this and spoke to Ted about his service in the army . This sparked Gary ' s interest and he went on a taster weekend for the army , eventually deciding to sign up . He left for training in January 2010 . During his service , Gary made friends with a fellow squaddie called Quinny . After Quinny ' s brother , also serving in the army , lost both his legs and right arm Gary decided to go AWOL . However , with encouragement from Anna and Eddie , he returned to his regiment . While on leave Gary had a brief romance with Izzy Armstrong and also a fling with Kylie Turner . He and Quinny got into a fight outside the Rovers Return Inn after a punter was rude to Izzy , and knocked the lad unconscious , but Gary was never charged for the incident and returned to war in Afghanistan . In November 2010 , Gary was injured whilst on deployment in Helmand Province , where Quinny was killed trying to save Gary from an attacked army vehicle . The event caused Gary to suffer from Post Traumatic Stress Disorder , and when a tram was derailed onto Coronation Street following an explosion in The Joinery bar , Gary started to have illusions of Afghanistan . He later recovered but faced the harrowing task of visiting Quinny ' s parents , since the pair had promised to talk to the others ' respective family should either of them be killed in action while serving in the army . Shortly after this , Gary was discharged from the forces after assaulting a police officer while on a night out with David Platt . 2011 - 2014 : Relationship with Izzy . When Eddie and Anna fostered Faye Butler , Gary helped Faye warm to his parents , although Eddie later left and moved to Germany . Nevertheless , Anna eventually adopted Faye and she became a younger sister for Gary . Gary also began a relationship with Izzy and moved in with her at 28 Grayling Street . They temporarily broke up as Gary continued to suffer from PTSD , and attempted to stop her from leaving home as he felt she was in danger . On Christmas Day , 2011 Gary and Izzy rekindled their relationship and Gary also started working for Izzy ' s father Owen as a labourer . In July 2012 Izzy became pregnant . However , after Izzy suffered a miscarriage she confessed to Gary that she couldn ' t face carrying a child full - term and giving birth . The couple looked into adoption but discovered that because of Gary ' s criminal record this was not an option . Instead , Izzy ' s younger sister Katy offered to act as a surrogate for the couple , but since this was inconvenient Tina McIntyre ended up as the surrogate mother ( in exchange for money in order to pay off her and Tommy Duckworth ' s debts ) . The surrogacy was successful and Tina became pregnant with Gary and Izzy ' s baby , although at one point Gary became overly protective of pregnant Tina and developed feelings for her . Gary made a pass at Tina , which caused him and Izzy to split up once again , and when the baby was born Tina initially decided to keep it because she didn ' t see Gary and Izzy as fit parents and had grown attached to the child herself . She named the baby " Joe " but eventually decided to hand him over to a reconciled Gary and Izzy who renamed him " Jake " . Gary ' s family largely blamed him for the Phelan situation and this put strain on his relationship with Izzy . On a night out Gary copped off with Alya Nazir ( although they didn ' t sleep together ) , who turned out to be the daughter of his friend Kal Nazir . Izzy and Gary decided to end their relationship for good after she discovered the fling . 2014 - 2015 : Relationship with Alya . After admitting their feelings for each other , Gary and Alya started dating secretly . Upon discovering this , Kal saw this as a betrayal and thumped Gary , disapproving of the relationship . This forced Alya to finish things with Gary , and over the Christmas period Gary reached his lowest ebb and ended up trying to rob Roy ' s Rolls for cash . Roy Cropper thought Gary was one of the teenagers who had been harassing him and beat him to the ground with a baseball bat . Gary was admitted to hospital and Roy faced a charge of assault for the attack . Gary later apologised to Roy and Roy offered him a job working at the café . In January 2015 , Gary and Alya rekindled their relationship and her family slowly came to accept Gary . Kal was killed in a fire on Victoria Court later that year , and during her grieving period Alya had drunken sex with Jason Grimshaw after Gary refused to do it with her . Despite this , the couple became engaged and Alya ' s grandfather Sharif offered Gary a share of V Court Fitness as a wedding present . As a result he quit working for Roy and also his labouring job for Jason . Alya eventually became overcome with guilt and confessed to Gary that she had lost her virginity . They broke off their engagement although Gary insisted on keeping his share in the gym and continued to work there . He was quickly appointed manager by Sharif after Zeedan Nazir decided to stop working at the gym . Relationships . Anna , Eddie and Len . Despite his troubled youth and early adulthood , Gary usually had a good relationship with his family . Anna would see the good in her son and supported him , even when he got into trouble , but at the same time would not refrain from reprimanding him over his misdeeds . Anna and Eddie even took responsibility for some of his behaviour , such as when they visited Ted Page in hospital after Gary had caused him to suffer a heart attack during a burglary . A common theme in the family was a peace offering in the form of a baked cake , which Eddie was skilled at making and usually answered for something which involved Gary . While Gary ' s parents tried to steer him in the right direction , his uncle Len would often cause him to get into fights . Both Anna and Eddie were aware of the detrimental effect Len had on his temperament . When Gary was sent to prison , Eddie blamed Len for Gary ' s bad ways and even banned him from visiting No . 6 for a few weeks . When Gary decided to join the army , Eddie was supportive of his decision but Anna initially against it , mostly out of fear for losing her son . She likened this to a wife worrying about her soldier husband , but eventually came round to the idea and was proud of Gary for his bravery and for turning his life around . Anna remained fearful though , and on one occasion when Gary got into a fight while on leave she admitted to Roy Cropper that she hoped Gary would be charged so that he didn ' t have to go back to war . While suffering from post - traumatic stress , on one occasion Gary took his aggression out on Anna by shoving her , which later resulted in a confrontation with Eddie and Gary punching his father after he called him a coward . After Eddie left Anna and moved to Germany , Gary seemed to make some effort to keep his relationship with his father , and visited him following his break up with fiancée Alya Nazir . In Eddie ' s absence , Gary became somewhat more protective of mother Anna , which was evident when he took it upon himself to confront businessman Pat Phelan , who had been making unwanted sexual advances towards Anna . Faye Windass . In 2010 Gary supported his parents ' decision to adopt , although after he was discharged from the army in January 2011 and was again living at No . 6 , his criminal record affected their chances . However , Anna and Eddie were successful in fostering young Faye Butler and while she struggled to warm to them at first , she was more comfortable with Gary and they quickly bonded as siblings . Over time , Gary convinced Faye that Anna and Eddie were good parents . While Eddie left in April 2011 , Gary and Faye later became adoptive siblings in November of that year . On occasions Gary himself tried to act as a parent to Faye , such as in June 2014 when Faye tried to get a paper round job but Gary revealed to Norris Cole that she was only 12 - years - old . Instead , he offered to give her money to go out with friends and chauffeur her . Gary covered for Faye when she got drunk with some friends on the pretense that she was out ice skating , and helped her sober up and agreed to try and hide what had happened from Anna and now - boyfriend Owen Armstrong . Background information . Creation and casting . Gary was created by producer Kim Crowther as part of a family unit which originally consisted of Eddie , Anna and Len as well as Gary . Their introduction and early storylines were centred around David Platt , but the family also served to replace the recently - departed Morton family as new tenants of 6 Coronation Street . The casting of the Windass family was announced on 24th September 2008 , although Gary ' s character was originally going to be called " Carl Windass " . Introduction and development . Gary was introduced as somewhat of an immature and aggressive young man , who often got into fights and had been in trouble with the law . It appeared that his uncle Len was the source of most of his bad behaviour while his parents Eddie and Anna tried to put him on the right track . In many ways Gary ' s character mirrored that of David Platt , and the two were rivals for a time . Although Gary originally appeared to be rather one - sided , actor Mikey North believed that his character had more than one side : " Gary has a lot of sides to him . He is a bit of a hard nut , but also a charmer with the ladies . " . North also noted Len ' s influence on Gary : " He gets it all from his uncle Len , who in a way is his idol . Gary copies his uncle and wants to be like him , even though he realises that it ' s not the best thing to do . " . The actor expressed his enjoyment of portraying Gary as a bad lad : " I like playing the bad boy and doing things you wouldn ' t necessarily be able to do in real life . " Over time , Gary matured and reformed from his bad boy ways , which began when he decided to join the armed forces . His relationship with Izzy Armstrong made his focus on starting a family and gave him a sense of responsibility . North took note of Gary ' s transformation : " Gary was a bad lad when he first came into the show , but I think he ' s grown up a lot since he came back from the army . " , but also admitted he wasn ' t keen on the direction his character was heading : " I ' ve got too nice now - I ' ve got to rein that back . Even I was getting sick of myself being nice . I need to try to put some sort of edgy element in - all this mushy stuff ' s just not for me . " In preparation for portraying Gary ' s role in joining the army and subsequent post - traumatic stress , North spent time with real - life veterans to hear about their relevant experiences . At the time of the storyline , Gary was the only character to be a soldier in a soap opera . . North also appeared as Gary in the online spin - off " Gary ' s Army Diaries " which depicted his tour in Afghanistan , the loss of Quinny and his breakdown as he tried to cope with the aftermath . Reception . The year after Gary ' s debut on the show , Mikey North was nominated in the ' Villain of the Year ' category at the 2009 " British Soap Awards " , although he did not receive the award . According to the actor himself , he had been approached by people who applauded him for Gary ' s beating of David Platt , who was similarly regarded as a villain ( actor Jack P . Shepherd had won the ' Villain of the Year ' title at the 2008 awards ) . North revealed that following his portrayal of Gary ' s army career in 2010 , he received letters from men serving in the army thanking him for the way the storyline had been dealt with , and also from people who had been inspired by what they had seen on - screen . . A review published by the " Metro " of " Gary ' s Army Diaries " praised the spin - off for its appeal to fans of the soap but also for accurately conveying the war in Afghanistan : " A relevant enough little spin - off to be a good watch for any Corrie fan , Gary ’ s Army Diaries also worked as a standalone film for anyone with a passing interest in the war in Afghanistan . "