she later divorced him and Des forgave her. Samantha later cheated on Des with Chris and their relationship ended. After their separation, Des began dating Natalie Horrocks (Denise Welch). Samantha was jealous and told Des that she was pregnant with his child and had an abortion. Des discovered that Samantha had been lying about the pregnancy but she then told him that she had suffered a miscarriage. Samantha then told Des again that she had been lying and that she was still pregnant with his child and left Weatherfield shortly afterwards. Although Natalie firmly believed Samantha had been lying, Des was never sure of whether he had become a father or not. In November 1998, just weeks after marrying Natalie, he walked into the living room of their home to find Natalie's son Tony (Lee Warburton) being attacked by a gang of drug dealers of Jez Quigley's to whom he owed money. When Des tried to stop the men from attacking his stepson, he was knocked unconscious and rushed to hospital. He appeared to be recovering and regained consciousness in hospital but then suffered a heart attack and died. Reception Des's character was, during his time on the soap, described as "the self-pitying Geordie of Coronation Street who hit his boss when he found him in bed with his girlfriend". References External links Coronation Street characters Fictional bookmakers Television characters introduced in 1990 Male characters in television Fictional murdered people