{"id":395570,"date":"2026-04-16T17:25:10","date_gmt":"2026-04-16T17:25:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/395570\/"},"modified":"2026-04-16T17:25:10","modified_gmt":"2026-04-16T17:25:10","slug":"hollyoaks-confirms-new-era-for-ste-amid-leahs-shock-return","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/395570\/","title":{"rendered":"Hollyoaks confirms “new era” for Ste amid Leah’s shock return"},"content":{"rendered":"

Hollyoaks spoilers<\/a> follow.<\/p>\n

Hollyoaks star Kieron Richardson has teased big things coming for his character Ste Hay, as he prepares to welcome his daughter Leah Barnes back into the village<\/a>. The character of Leah exited back in September 2024, leaving the village behind to attend university in America.<\/p>\n

While Leah was previously played by Ela-May Demircan for 13 years, the role has now been recast, with Charlotte Riley joining the cast. Charlotte’s previous credits include an appearance in Coronation Street<\/a> last year, where she portrayed young Lou Michaelis in a flashback episode<\/a>. <\/p>\n

\"leah<\/p>\n

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

Related: Hollyoaks confirms fate of injured characters after crash<\/a><\/p>\n

Leah is also set to return alongside her new boyfriend, Misbah Maalik’s son Imran, with Ijaz Rana reprising the role.<\/p>\n

In a chat with Inside Soap<\/a>, Kieron revealed how Leah’s return will impact Ste. “Leah comes back completely different to how she left \u2013 no pun intended!” he joked. <\/p>\n

“This time round, she might be able to support Ste more than Ste can support her. Hopefully, Ste makes up with Lucas, and we can have a new era for our family.”
<\/p>\n

Leah’s return won’t be the only drama that Ste has to deal with either, as next week, he cheats on his fianc\u00e9 Rex Gallagher when he kisses his ex-husband James Nightingale.<\/p>\n

\"james<\/p>\n

Lime Pictures<\/p>\n

Related: Hollyoaks reveals James new return plot in 18 pictures<\/a><\/p>\n

“Ste is arrested and waiting for his solicitor \u2013 then, in walks James Nightingale!” Kieron revealed. “Once James finds out the whole situation with Rex, he uses that to manipulate Ste into the relationship. He gets under Ste\u2019s skin\u2026”<\/p>\n

Kieron also teased that the kiss could affect Ste’s wedding to Rex, which will be the character’s fifth marriage.<\/p>\n

\"ste<\/p>\n

Lime Pictures<\/p>\n

Related: Hollyoaks confirms surprise passion for Ste and James<\/a><\/p>\n

“That\u2019s now another secret that Ste has. It\u2019s like a secret flips from one to another out of Ste and Rex,” Kieron reasoned.<\/p>\n

“Leading up to a wedding, it\u2019s not great. I don\u2019t think there\u2019s ever been any wedding in Hollyoaks which has gone well, but we\u2019ll see!”
<\/p>\n

Read the full interview with Kieron in the latest issue of Inside Soap<\/a> \u2013 out now.<\/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 – as Carla and Lisa get married and Charity goes into labour. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Hollyoaks spoilers follow. Hollyoaks star Kieron Richardson has teased big things coming for his character Ste Hay, as…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":395571,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[29],"tags":[137242,137241,635,187860,637,146,1345,85,46,636,187859,141123,411],"class_list":{"0":"post-395570","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-tv","8":"tag-collection-inside-soap","9":"tag-collection-latest-news","10":"tag-content-type-news","11":"tag-contentid-6840971b-95ad-4002-9dd9-f36fcfb53867","12":"tag-displaytype-standard-article","13":"tag-entertainment","14":"tag-hasproduct-true","15":"tag-il","16":"tag-israel","17":"tag-locale-gb","18":"tag-shorttitle-hollyoaks-confirms-new-era-for-ste-amid-leahs-big-return","19":"tag-subsection-hollyoaks","20":"tag-tv"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/395570","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=395570"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/395570\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/395571"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=395570"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=395570"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=395570"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}