Hollyoaks' Sarah Jayne Dunn has addressed her exit from the show, following a dispute with bosses over her OnlyFans account.
The star announced that she was joining the content subscription platform last week, explaining that she wanted to regain her agency. She said that her decision was "about empowerment and confidence and having full power over my choices".
Shortly after this, Hollyoaks bosses met with Dunn. The soap then said that the Mandy Richardson actress will be leaving the show after no resolution was reached.
This morning (November 4), Dunn spoke about her departure on her Instagram Stories.
Responding to her followers and fans, she posted a message acknowledging and thanking everyone for the many supportive comments that she has received.
"Thank you for your support ♡," she wrote.
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Four days ago, she shared an Instagram post describing the "overwhelming" amount of positivity and support that she's had since her original announcement.
"'Inspiring, empowering, motivating, trailblazing, brave, strong, courageous, savvy' have been some of the many positive things that press, friends, family, and strangers have described my decision as, to name a few," she said.
"I am thrilled that the reasons behind my decision have been acknowledged, accepted, and completely embraced, and as I'd hoped have inspired many other women to own their power, dismiss judgment, and embrace their feminine."
Addressing the "few negative comments", she said: "Stop body shaming, mother shaming, woman shaming, and let others live and do what they choose to do with their own bodies. It's time to change the script."
Hollyoaks' statement confirming Dunn's departure from the soap read: "Hollyoaks is a youth-facing drama with many young viewers, who follow our cast very closely, both in the soap and outside of it.
"We take our responsibility to our young audience very seriously and therefore the show does not allow any Hollyoaks cast members to be active on certain 18+ websites.
"We had hoped we could reach a resolution with Sarah that would allow her to remain in her role as Mandy, but we respect her choice to continue to produce content on OnlyFans.
"In the past four years since her return to the show, her legacy character has been an integral part of some our most important storylines and we will be very sad to see her go."
Hollyoaks airs new episodes from Mondays to Fridays at 6.30pm on Channel 4, with first-look screenings at 7pm on E4. Selected omnibus episodes are available via Amazon Prime Video.
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