Nessa Warner Vanessa " Nessa " Warner was the sister of Cathy Matthews and mother of Alex Warner who first turned up in Weatherfield in October 2015 when son Alex went missing . This was a normal occurrence for Nessa except this time he wasn ' t answering her calls on his mobile phone . Nessa went to see her sister Cathy to see if he was with her , but when Nessa reached Cathy , Alex was not there . Nessa broke down in tears and sat down at a table in Roy ' s Rolls . She was comforted by Cathy and her partner , Roy Cropper . Later Nessa , Cathy , Roy , Ken Barlow and Audrey Roberts all fanned out to try and find Alex . He was discovered safe and sound drinking in the Rovers . By the end of the day , Nessa had taken a shine to Ken . Nessa landed a job at Audrey ' s salon and she and Ken started dating during the following month , although his daughter Tracy disapproved of him dating Nessa so soon after her mother Deirdre ' s death . Despite this , Ken continued to see Nessa , making Audrey jealous in the process , as she had also developed strong feelings for the widower , but had failed to tell him . In January 2016 , Cathy told Nessa of her New Year ' s resolution which was to de - clutter the rest of her house . Nessa - who didn ' t believe that she would be able to do such a thing - told her that if she managed to get a car boot - full she would cook Cathy and Roy a meal over at No . 1 . While sorting through late - husband Alan ' s paperwork , Roy discovered some old love letters from Nessa . Surprised by this discovery , Roy decided to not tell Cathy in the fear that it would break the already fragile woman . Roy confronted Nessa about the discovery , who begged Roy to help her dispose of the damning letters . As they entered Cathy ' s living room , they saw a tearful Cathy at Alan ' s desk holding the letters . Cathy decided to call time on her relationship with Roy due to the fact that he knew about the affair but didn ' t tell her . Cathy later disposed of the letters by setting them on fire in a bin but she briefly left the room and by the time she returned , the flames had gone out of control . Roy and Nessa called round at the house to apologise , and as they spotted the blaze , Roy went inside to rescue a trapped Cathy as Nessa telephoned for the emergency services . Following the fiasco , Ken invited Nessa round to No . 1 to tell her that he ' d decided to finish with her since they were too different and that it was too soon for him to be in a relationship following Deirdre ' s death . Nessa then told Audrey that she was welcome to Ken , before driving off . A couple of weeks after the split Alex revealed to Cathy that Nessa had moved onto another new man and by May , they had made arrangements to move to Scotland . Alex did not want to go however , so he moved into 16a Victoria Street with Roy and Cathy . In June , Nessa sent Roy and Cathy an engagement card , and in it , informed them that she and boyfriend Frank were going to Bali for a holiday until Christmas , leaving Alex to stay in Weatherfield with Cathy . Nessa nevertheless returned to Weatherfield in December for Cathy and Roy ' s wedding . A few months ' earlier , Cathy had discovered that Alex ' s natural father had been Alan and not Nigel Warner , Nessa ' s ex - husband . Nessa was unchanged in her selfishness and was happily oblivious to the atmosphere in the cafe , flirting outrageously with Brian Packham and Freddie Smith as Cathy bit her tongue until she heard sister boasting that she was a magnet for men . She unleashed her fury at her for the affair and threw her out but soon relented , not wanting anything to spoil her big day , and even agreed to Nessa ' s last - minute request to give her away . Nessa then proved unexpectedly supportive to her sibling when the wedding came to nothing , after Cathy discovered just before the service that Roy didn ' t want to commit to her and marry . While Yasmeen Nazir put Cathy up at 6 Coronation Street , Nessa came round with a bottle of wine and the suggestion that they both go out and find a new man for her . Instead , the two sisters stayed in and shared the bottle together before her return to Scotland . List of appearances . 2015 2016