Shelley Unwin Shelley Victoria Unwin ( previously Barlow ) is the daughter of Bev Unwin and the late Charlie Unwin . Biography . Shelley came to the rescue when staff was short behind the bar at the Rovers . She had worked behind the club bar when Duggie Ferguson was playing for Weatherfield Rugby Club . They were very good friends but it never developed into any more than that . Shelley was devastated when Duggie died at The Ridings property development . In the Rovers , Shelley proved to be a popular barmaid . After Fred Elliott bought the pub , Shelley and Geena Gregory competed for the position of bar manager . Shelley was given the job and Geena resented it . Shelley had settled into the job quite well though did tend to be a bit too lenient with the staff . Her best friend was Sunita Parekh who worked in the Corner Shop . Relationship with Peter Barlow . Shelley fell in love with Peter Barlow over Christmas , 2001 . Peter had recently purchased the bookmaker ' s shop and flat above , however he moved into 19a Victoria Street and Shelley joined him during the following February . They went through a rough patch and broke up for a while after Peter ' s friend Ciaran McCarthy made a pass at Shelley . She didn ' t tell Peter at first but when he finally found out , Ciaran made it sound as if Shelley came on to him . Peter became very jealous and Shelley , hurt that Peter didn ' t believe her , left . Once it became clear to Peter that Ciaran was lying , Peter cut off his friendship and he and Shelley reconciled . Ciaran returned to Weatherfield for Peter and Shelley ' s engagement party and stayed on , much to Shelley ' s chagrin . Peter and Ciaran began to renew their friendship and Shelley ended up accepting it but never really trusted Ciaran , who later got engaged to Sunita . Peter and Shelley moved into the pub when Fred moved in with his son Ashley Peacock at 4 Coronation Street after the death of his wife Maxine , but what Shelley didn ' t know was that Peter was seeing another woman , Lucy Richards , who got pregnant . Peter couldn ' t find the words to tell Shelley , because every opportunity either got interrupted or he lost his nerve . Just when he finally wanted to tell her , a week before he was going to marry Lucy , Shelley ' s sister , Sharon , died . Peter married Lucy on the day of Sharon ' s funeral , but Lucy soon found out that Peter had never broken up with Shelley and kicked him out for good . Peter , although not divorced , married Shelley in July 2003 . Peter ' s baby , Simon had just been born . By the end of the summer though , Lucy spilled the beans and told Shelley about her and Peter ' s marriage and the baby . Shelley and Peter broke up for good and Shelley then nursed a broken heart while trying to run the pub with the help of her mother , Bev . In January 2004 , Shelley had an ill - fated date with Newton & Ridley drayman Eric Gartside . Eric tried his best to woo Shelley and took her out for an expensive meal ; however , when they went back to his house for a drink , she was quickly put off by his mother , Dolly . Shelley told Eric that he was a lovely fella but she didn ’ t think things would work out between them . Relationship with Charlie Stubbs . Shelley then started seeing builder Charlie Stubbs , even though he had been previously going out with her mother , Bev . In spite of his relationship with Shelley , it didn ’ t take Charlie long to bed Bev behind her back . Bev made the awkward decision to come clean to her daughter , but Charlie made sure that Shelley didn ’ t believe a word of it . Devastated that her daughter could believe Charlie over her , Bev left the Rovers and Weatherfield . On her return to Weatherfield , Liz McDonald was offered a job and a room at the Rovers by Fred . Shelley and Liz didn ’ t get on from the start , as Shelley had already hired Leanne Battersby to fill the position left by Bev . Fred said that his choice was final , and Liz stayed . It didn ’ t take long for Charlie to begin to make a move on Liz . She refused his advances and told Shelley , who , true to form , rejected any claim that Charlie could cheat on her . Again , Charlie pressurised Shelley into believing him , and Liz was sacked from the pub and left Weatherfield briefly to help Bet Lynch in Brighton . Charlie and Shelley ’ s relationship continued to be a picture of happiness to the other Street residents , and to Shelley herself . When Liz returned she was reinstated at the Rovers , but it wasn ’ t long before Charlie tried it on yet again . She walked out , this time for good , and took a job at the Weatherfield Arms . After Liz had left , Shelley became more and more concerned about Charlie straying . The height of this came when a drunken Shelley marched over to No . 8 and confronted Gail Platt , who she thought was having an affair with Charlie . The two women argued in the Street , and Gail told Shelley that Charlie was doing some building work for her . Shelley was shame - faced and Charlie told her that she was stupid . Shelley grovelled to Charlie and they stayed together . After Maya Sharma burnt down Dev Alahan ’ s grocery shop empire , Shelley thought , that since they were friends , Charlie could do all of the rebuilding work for Dev . Over dinner at Dev and Sunita ’ s flat , Shelley made suggestions to Dev that Charlie would do the work for cheap and that he could start as soon as possible , since he had little work on the go . This enraged Charlie who , back at the Rovers , told Shelley that she had seriously undermined him and made him look like a fool who couldn ’ t get any work . Again , Shelley grovelled . In December , Shelley made contact with her mother , Bev . The two women arranged to meet for lunch and Shelley told Charlie that she was going to a Newton & Ridley Christmas Do . Sly Charlie phoned the brewery , who told him that there was no such party , and his suspicions started to increase . He confronted Shelley who tried to deny her whereabouts at first , but when Charlie accused her of seeing another man , she admitted that she ’ d been to see Bev , and that they planned to meet up again . Charlie then made Shelley phone Bev and tell her that she didn ’ t want to see her anymore . Charlie continued to put Shelley down , and after every phone call he accused her of talking to her mother . A few weeks later , Bev turned up at No . 1 and asked Deirdre Rachid to pop next door to the Rovers and fetch Shelley because the two women needed to talk . Shelley said that everything was fine with Charlie and tried her best to make Bev think the same . As she was leaving , Bev told Deirdre to keep an eye out on Shelley as she thought that Charlie was treating her badly . For New Year , Charlie bought Shelley a new dress ; however it transpired that the dress was two sizes too small for Shelley . Charlie pretended to be upset that he ’ d got the wrong size , but then hinted that instead of getting a replacement , Shelley should try and lose some weight . Shelley was upset by this , and told him to get the dress in a larger size . Instead , Charlie gave the dress to his workmate Jason Grimshaw who hastily gave it to his barmaid girlfriend Violet Wilson . Shelley was humiliated when Violet turned up at work in the dress , and caused a scene in front of a pub full of regulars . In the end Charlie managed to get his own way ( as usual ) when Shelley suggested that it would be a good idea to lose a bit of weight . Charlie further isolated Shelley until she ended up hiding away from everyone in her bedroom for several months . She pushed away all her friends , including Ciaran who ended up leaving Weatherfield . Shelley thought having some plastic surgery on her face would help her feel better about herself so Charlie paid for it . She then thought that they should get married and Charlie went along with it , not thinking she ' d actually go through with it . In the meantime , he found her a psychologist because she was also retreating from him . He didn ' t realise that Zack would start to give Shelley the confidence she needed to start standing up to Charlie . He tried to fire Zack since he was paying the bills . This seemed to be the wake - up call that Shelley needed . She did manage to get to St . Christopher ' s Church and so did Charlie after a night with a woman he met at the Weatherfield Arms . Shelley dumped Charlie at the altar and took herself home through the streets of Weatherfield , head held high . She threw Charlie out and started rebuilding her life and her friendships . Departure . After her mother , Bev , agreed to marry Fred , Shelley started to feel more left out and overshadowed in the pub when Bev started acting the landlady even before the wedding . Shelley decided she needed a fresh start and got a job at a country pub . Before she left , she had a one - night stand with Charlie . She returned a month or so later to help her mother with the wedding , only to reveal that she had become pregnant after the night with Charlie . Bev wanted Shelley to terminate the pregnancy but Shelley was determined to keep it , a new baby and a fresh start . She insisted that Charlie not find out about it . Bev slipped up and told Deirdre who was horrified because Charlie was now in a relationship with her daughter Tracy . Deirdre insisted she was going to tell Tracy before Shelley - but Shelly got there first - leading to a confrontation in the back room of the pub . Tracy , of course , confronted Charlie and told him to insist Shelley had a termination . Shelley almost got away without seeing Charlie but he confronted her . She insisted she would keep the baby and would never ask him for a penny . He didn ' t believe her , but she left , telling him that the baby would never know who its father was .