{"id":361925,"date":"2026-03-24T04:00:09","date_gmt":"2026-03-24T04:00:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/361925\/"},"modified":"2026-03-24T04:00:09","modified_gmt":"2026-03-24T04:00:09","slug":"hollyoaks-announces-return-of-two-major-characters-in-shock-romance-twist","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/361925\/","title":{"rendered":"Hollyoaks announces return of two major characters in shock romance twist"},"content":{"rendered":"

Leah Barnes and Imran Maalik are set to return to Hollyoaks<\/a> after finding love off-screen. Leah was last seen in the Channel 4 soap in 2024<\/a> after sharing a heartfelt goodbye with dad Ste Hay before starting a new life in America.<\/p>\n

Imran, meanwhile, left the village in 2023<\/a> to pursue a job opportunity in London following his recovery from an eating disorder<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The Maaliks and the Hays<\/a> have a troubled history, with Ste being groomed and radicalised into joining a far-right gang and targeting the Maaliks<\/a>, but it doesn’t seem to have phased Leah and Imran, who will return to the show as a couple.<\/p>\n

\"leah<\/p>\n

Ean Flanders\/\/Lime Pictures<\/p>\n

Related: Best streaming services UK 2026 \u2013 including Disney Plus, Netflix, iPlayer and Apple TV+<\/a><\/p>\n

Ijaz Rana will reprise his role as Imran, whereas Charlotte Riley will take over from Ela-May Demircan<\/a> as Leah.<\/p>\n

Talking about returning to Hollyoaks, Ijaz said: “Coming back to the village feels like home. It\u2019s an honour to step into Imran again, and he hasn\u2019t been quiet off-screen\u2026 I can\u2019t wait for everyone to see what he\u2019s been up to.”<\/p>\n

Charlotte added, “It feels like a dream to be joining Hollyoaks. I’m looking forward to viewers seeing a new side to Leah Barnes.”<\/p>\n

Charlotte is no stranger to the world of soaps, having played young Lou Michaelis in a special Coronation Street flashback episode last year.<\/p>\n

She appeared in the episode alongside Brook Debio, who plays Anthony Hutchinson in Hollyoaks, and Lewis Walton, who will be joining the show as part of a new family<\/a>. <\/p>\n

\"leah<\/p>\n

Lime Pictures<\/p>\n

Ijaz’s return will see him reunite with Harvey Virdi, who plays his onscreen mum, Misbah Maalik.<\/p>\n

He first joined the soap in 2017 in his first notable TV credit, securing a nomination for best leading performer at the 2023 British Soap Awards.<\/p>\n

Hollyoaks airs on Mondays-Wednesdays with its Channel 4 streaming<\/a> premiere at 7am, then an E4 broadcast the same night at 7pm. Full episodes are also released on YouTube a week after their Channel 4 release.<\/p>\n

Selected omnibus episodes are available via Prime Video<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Read more Hollyoaks spoilers on our dedicated homepage<\/a><\/p>\n

For exclusive soap star interviews, gossip, spoilers and theories every week, don’t miss the Soap Scoop podcast<\/a> from Inside Soap magazine. The latest episode<\/a> delves into next week\u2019s soap spoilers for EastEnders, Coronation Street and Emmerdale – from Jodie\u2019s latest move in Weatherfield, to Oscar\u2019s new romance on the Square!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Leah Barnes and Imran Maalik are set to return to Hollyoaks after finding love off-screen. Leah was last…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":361926,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[29],"tags":[131124,1105,163588,1107,93,1110,61,60,1135,163587,132060,282],"class_list":["post-361925","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-tv","tag-collection-latest-news","tag-content-type-news","tag-contentid-b54c1d40-7e3d-41a5-9d48-4fb5394623ee","tag-displaytype-standard-article","tag-entertainment","tag-hasproduct-true","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-locale-gb","tag-shorttitle-hollyoaks-announces-return-of-two-major-characters","tag-subsection-hollyoaks","tag-tv"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/361925","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=361925"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/361925\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/361926"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=361925"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=361925"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=361925"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}