Stella Rigby Stella Rigby was the landlady of the White Swan , member of the Lady Victuallers , wife of Paul , and friend of Bet Lynch . Stella invited Bet to join the LV just after Bet became landlady of the Rovers in March 1985 . The LV had been the cornerstone of Annie Walker ' s social life and Stella was cut from the same cloth as the former landlady ; full of airs and graces and , in their first few encounters , a thinly - veiled disdain for Bet . According to Alec Gilroy , she was a nymphomaniac . When the White Swan and the Rovers competed against each other in Newton & Ridley ' s Brainiest Pub contest , Bet was hoping to wipe the smile off Stella ' s face but was put out when Stella produced a fully degree - educated team for the White Swan , which triumphed over the Rovers team . Bet was gracious in defeat but Stella couldn ' t resist gloating that there wasn ' t any doubt about the outcome . Later that year , Stella offered her support to Bet after finding out she was in trouble with the brewery for going on a cruise without getting permission from them first , but Bet didn ' t appear convinced by her sincerity . Stella and Bet became friends . When Bet was long overdue a holiday in 1988 and Alec kept saying no , Bet booked a trip to Morocco and took Stella . In November , Bet and Stella went to a health farm to lose weight but they couldn ' t stick it for more than a week and lived it up in a hotel instead , letting their husbands think they were giving it their all at the health farm . Paul and Alec found out anyway . A month later , Bet used Stella to get rid of Charlie Bracewell , who Alec had taken on as a barman at the Rovers . After inviting Stella over , Bet instructed Charlie to treat Stella well . Stella was so impressed with him that she poached him to work at the White Swan - exactly as Bet had planned . When Alec was away for a few months on a tour of the Middle East , Bet was lonely and went on nights out with Paul , without Stella ' s knowledge . Alec returned early and caught Bet and Paul returning from a night out together and assumed she ' d been unfaithful , causing a separation . News of this soon reached Stella who at first laughed off the suggestion that Paul would be interested in Bet - he preferred younger women - but she couldn ' t explain them going out together and let rip at Bet , calling her a bitch . The Gilroys reconciled soon after this . Stella and Bet apparently made up their friendship as they went on holiday together to Stella ' s holiday home in Tenerife in 1992 . A few months later , Stella checked over Bet ' s figures when the brewery told Bet the Rovers was overstaffed . Stella and Bet believed otherwise . In March 1993 , Councillor Harry Potts told Stella about a road - widening scheme which could mean the White Swan would be demolished . She then discovered that Harry had told Bet the same thing about the Rovers , and that he was leaking them " inside " information for free drinks . They got revenge on Harry by making him buy all the drinks at a party in exchange for their silence . A year later , Stella underwent a facelift operation , trying to keep the news from getting out . Bet gleefully spread the gossip though and bought the patient a " 21 Today " birthday card from The Kabin . When Jim and Liz McDonald were taken on as managers by the brewery that same year , they trained at the White Swan . In October 1995 , Stella found out from the " Gazette " that the brewery were selling seven of their smaller pubs , including the White Swan and the Rovers , and passed the news onto Bet . While the Rigbys had enough funds to buy their pub outright , Bet had no savings and left the Rovers a few weeks later .