Lesley Meredith

Lesley Meredith is the mother of Simon Meredith.

In June 2004, Simon brought his mother to the village so she could meet his girlfriend Nicola Blackstock. A few weeks later, Lesley had dinner with Simon and Nicola. Not long after, when Simon's ex-fiancée Tash Abbott arrived in the village, Nicola grew extremely jealous and the two women came to blows. Simon became tired of Nicola's jealousy and fled to Scarborough, closely followed by her. Simon and Nicola put aside their differences and got together, much to the surprise and delight of Lesley. A few months later, Lesley turned up to spend Christmas with Simon.

In May 2005, Lesley visited to help Simon and Nicola with house-hunting. However, they got tired of her interference and agreed that next time they go house hunting it will be alone. Not long after, Lesley tore a ligament in her arm and stayed with Simon and Nicola in order to recuperate. Lesley revealed to a furious Simon that the family business had gone into liquidation and her house was in danger of being repossessed. This only created problems in Simon and Nicola's relationship, as Nicola couldn’t live without money and Simon – who’d by now got a job on the bins – was bringing in next to nothing. Sick of each other, the couple started rowing to a terrible extent.

Nicola had developed a huge crush on Ivan Jones and was trying her level best to seduce him. Lesley caught Nicola dressed in skimpy underwear and pawing Ivan, and immediately assumed they were having an affair; soon everyone knew. Simon was horrified at the thought of the two people closest to him had betrayed him and disowned them both.

Lesley bumped into Bobby-John, a man she’d fallen for in her youth and they rekindled their romance. Simon was deeply skeptical of Bobby-John and worried Lesley was heading for a fall. She was, but it wasn’t of Bobby-John’s making. She’d been stealing money from Kelly Windsor’s credit card and used it pay for a posh break away with Bobby-John. When the truth came out, everyone was horrified and Lesley was left thinking she’d lost everyone. Fortunately, Bobby-John found it in his heart to forgive her and they rode off into the sunset together.