connie rathbone was a close friend of jack duckworth (bill tarmey). she first appears on 17 april 2009, when she discovers one of jack's missing pigeons and returns it to him. connie and jack get friendly as they chat about them both being widows. as connie's visits become more frequent, tyrone (alan halsall) gets annoyed, seeing it as an insult to jack's deceased wife vera's (liz dawn) memory. in may, connie invites jack on holiday to spain with her. jack is afraid of what tyrone will think of him and connie going on holiday together, he lies and says he is going to blackpool. in july, he visits connie at her house and is amazed to discover that she is rich and lives in a lavish mansion. tyrone is initially hostile towards connie as he sees her as an insult to memories of vera and believing she is after jack's money, but realises this is not the case after seeing her big house. jack moves in with connie in september 2009 to give tyrone and molly more space.