Margaret "Madge" Sharples was the second-born daughter of Alfred and Ena Sharples. Born in 1924, three years after the 1921 birth of sister Vera. She also had a brother named Ian, who died at the age of two. Her father died in 1937 when Madge was thirteen, and her mother (wanting a change) moved from Inkerman Street, Weatherfield to the Glad Tidings Mission Hall in Coronation Street as caretaker soon after. Because of her mother's judgemental and interfering nature, Vera and Madge became alienated from her as they grew older. Madge and her mother became almost completely estranged after Madge emigrated in 1950.