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Hollyoaks stars have been faced with their own real tragedies away from the fictional village over the years.
While some cast members have struggled to deal with the death of a co-star, others have been faced with heartbreak and grief. The actors and actresses have all bravely opened up about their personal battles when the cameras stop rollings.
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Fans of the Channel 4 soap know that the serial drama is not one to shy away from tackling taboo topics and dealing with tough situations. Daily Star has taken a look at some of the stars who've been faced with their own heartbreak.
Co-star death
Jeremy Edwards was one of original Hollyoaks heartthrobs, playing Kurt Benson for over four years between 1995 and 1999. After Hollyoaks, he also landed a leading role as another heartthrob – this time playing doctor Danny Shaughnessy in the BBC drama Holby City from 1999 and 2003. However, his time on Holby City also came with tragedy, as Jeremy battled with depression following the death of his co-star Laura Sadler, who died after falling from a balcony at her boyfriend's home in 2002.
Speaking about the effect that the tragic incident had on his life, he told Heat: "It was a tough time for me. After Laura's death, I got really messed up. I was drinking a hell of a lot and got seriously depressed."
The actor also revealed that the incident took a toll on his relationship with pop star Rachel Stevens, to who the star was engaged between 2002 and 2004.
Since then Jeremy has appeared in TV series including Emmerdale, Doctors, Crime Stories and Millie Inbetween.
He has also found happiness with his wife Lydia, who the actor has been married to since 2009 and with who he has two children.
Loss of father
Two Pints Of Lager and a Packet of Crisp's icon and Strictly star Will Mellor was another of the original Hollyoaks heartthrobs, after joining the soap as James Bolton. He played the role from 1995 to 2004, and from there has not left our TV screens, appearing in rival soaps such as EastEnders and Waterloo Road, as well as most recently playing drug dealer Harvey in Coronation Street.
However away from the limelight, Will revealed that he had also suffered a heartbreaking loss in his personal life, following the death of his father from cancer in 2020. Speaking about his father on the Two Pints with Will & Ralf podcast, Will said: "He sat in a chair outside the back door and I sat up the garden and I didn't hug him because of the coronavirus thing and he passed away without me doing that. "He actually said to me 'if I got hold of you I wouldn't be able to let go'. That was one of the last things he said to me and it absolutely killed me."
The Strictly Come Dancing star also struggled to hold back tears as he received feedback from his emotional dance dedicated to him mum in an episode of the BBC competition. As he tried to respond to host Claudia Winkleman's questions, Will succumbed to his tears and emotions, saying: "I'm emotional … I just can't talk at the moment, I'm sorry". The actor danced to Three Times A Lady, a song his dad used to sing to his mum before he passed away.
Talking to him mum in a video tape before the dance, Will said he was prepared for it to be "emotional". Explaining the meaning behind the dance, Will said he wanted to "pay his respects" to his late father and his family. Hopefully with this dance I can pay my respects to my dad", he said.
Miscarriage
In November 2021, Theresa McQueen actress Jorgie Porter revealed that she had miscarried quadruplets at just 14 weeks. Talking to Sharon Carpenter on the Loose Lips podcast, she said that she had not told anyone about her miscarriage for weeks after it happened, as she "could not find anyone" who had been through the same experience and that miscarriage wasn't a subject that young people learn about in school.
"We were just never taught, we were never taught how to handle emotions, it was never in our mindsets for that to happen," said Jorgie. "I think if you're a young woman if that happens you sort of question it. You still don't know why this happens, we still don't have any understanding, doctors never really tell you why "Four for me was the reason why, maybe they couldn't fit in. If this could change the way we know more about it, if this is anything that brings to the table that would be incredible."
She said that her fiance Ollie Piotrowski had been 'super supportive' and that she had received a lot of supportive messages from people, adding: "Right now I feel very loved by everyone I've had the most amazing response, amazing messages people have been incredible, event on sites where you think people wouldn't usually be that nice, I've felt the love."
However in June 2022, Jorgie and Ollie shared the news that they were expecting, with Jorgie sharing a sweet video of her and Ollie's hands covering a scan picture. The actress captioned the post: "Hopeful beginnings," followed by a love heart face emoji.
Her Hollyoaks co-stars sent their messages of congratulations to the couple in the comments section, with Chelsee Healey writing: "Crying," followed by love heart emojis. TOWIE’s Georgia Kousoulous said: "Aww congratulations", while Ashley James added: "Ahhhh I'm so so happy for you my love."
Real life reflecting storyline
Ashley Taylor Dawson has played Darren Osborne in Hollyoaks since 1999 – and during that time has been involved in a number of huge storylines. One such story also resonated with Ashley in real life, when his character Darren was involved in a storyline about male suicide, where character Kyle Kelly, played by Adam Rickett, took his own life.
Ashley revealed that he has lost five friends to suicide, the first when he was 16 years old, and that the storyline was like "counselling" for him. He told Soap from the Box Podcast: "The plot was a wonderful education for me, because I was that guy who had never approached or dealt with it, never understood it "It’s been like counselling, it’s been brilliant," he added. I’m open to learning and speaking about it more throughout my life now."
Sudden death
Kristian Ealey played Matt Musgrove in two Channel 4 soaps – Brookside and Hollyoaks. After starring in Brookside between 1998 to 2000, he stepped onto Hollyoaks to reprise the character between 2000 to 2004, and also starred in spin-off Hollyoaks: After Hours. He was also a musician in the band Tramp Attack and appeared as Ringo Starr in the film, In His Life: The John Lennon Story.
However, the talented actor died in his sleep at the age of 38 years old on May 3, 2016. Brookside's Suzanne Collins, who worked with Kristian on the soap, is reported as telling The Liverpool Echo that she understood Kristian had gone to sleep with a pain in his arm and had not woken up.
Suzanne also paid tribute to the actor in an emotional message, saying: "There were a gang of the young ones who grew up on the set of Brookside, we called ourselves the Brookie Brat Pack and have an incredible bond.
"We were together nearly every day on set and we socialised out of work together, we became family.” She added: "It has shocked us all to the core. Kris was full of life, full of smiles and so full of music."
Former Hollyoaks actress Gemma Atkinson also tweeted her own tribute, saying: "Just awful. What a lovely, lovely man! Had many laughs with him at work back in the day. RIP." A spokesperson for Lime Pictures added: "Many crew worked with Kristian on both Brookside and Hollyoaks and enjoyed following his musical success after leaving the show. The news has been met with shock and sadness on set and our thoughts are with his family at this time."
Hollyoaks airs weeknights on E4 at 7pm
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- Hollyoaks
- Channel 4
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