‘Coronation Street’ actor Marc Anwar has been sacked from the ITV soap with immediate effect, after sharing a string of racist tweets.
The Pakistan-born soap star, who has played Sharif Nazir in ‘Corrie’ for two years, shocked his followers on Friday night (23 September) when he posted a number of offensive comments about Indian people on his Twitter page.
As reported by the Sunday Mirror, he referred to Indian people as “bastards” and “c***s”, while criticising Pakistani artists who wanted to work in India, asking: “Do you love money so much?”
After ITV were contacted by the newspaper over his racist remarks, a spokesperson confirmed that Marc had been given his marching orders from the soap with immediate effect.
In a statement, ITV said: “We are deeply shocked by the entirely unacceptable, racially offensive comments made on Twitter by Marc Anwar.
“We have talked to Marc and, as a consequence of his comments, he will not be returning to ‘Coronation Street’with immediate effect.”
He has now deleted his Twitter page, after initially making it private in the wake of the controversy.
Marc first joined ‘Coronation Street’ when the Nazir family made their debut in 2014, making soap history as the first Muslim family to ever reside on the cobbles.
The character has been involved in some big storylines over the past two years, most recently having to come to terms with the death of his son, Kal, who died in a horrific fire in 2015.
More recently, Sharif stunned his family when it emerged he’d been having a seven-year extra-marital affair, a storyline which was still underway when the news broke that Marc had been fired immediately.
