Hollyoaks spoilers follow for the latest episode to air on E4 and be available on the Channel 4 streaming service.
Hollyoaks' third and final episode of its explosive 30th anniversary week has aired, and it not only featured the heavily-teased return of Brookside, but it also saw two more major characters die in typically dramatic fashion.
And now that those exits have been aired, one star has opened up about how one of the soap's most recent storylines was so controversial, it led to their decision to leave the soap for good.
That character in question is Grace Black, who was accidentally shot during a scuffle between Clare Devine and Rex Gallagher.
She was taken to hospital in tonight's episode, but although Misbah Maalik told Froggy that things weren't looking too bad, Grace flatlined and died by the episode's end.
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Now The Sun has published an interview with Grace actor Tamara Wall where she admitted that the recent human trafficking story had made her character irredeemable, despite her trying to do good towards the end, and she decided with soap boss Hannah Cheers that the only way out was for Grace to go.
"I'm devastated, but it was going to happen," she said. "We knew when we did the storyline that there was every chance that it was going to be. So we took a risk. We told the storyline.
"I think I told it pretty well. Well, I must have done, because everyone hates me. Well, they hate Grace. So as devastated as I am, at least I understand why.
"And it's for the right reasons. And I don't think Grace was ever going to get her happy ending. Do you know what I mean?"
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Wall spoke about how she and Cheers came to the decision "a while ago" due to the online backlash "which I shouldn't read, but you do", and while people had loved to hate Grace before, this time she took it more personally.
"That was what really kind of nailed the coffin for me, was like, 'I'm really not enjoying this'," she explained.
She also said that the storyline ending with Grace just going to prison is "a shit way to go", while redeeming the character could "be the cause of Hollyoaks' downfall". With the 30th anniversary on the horizon, the decision to go out big was made.
"Hollyoaks has been my life for the last, what, 13 years now, I think. And my family and everything to me. I love that building," Wall added, noting that the thing she is "most gutted" by is not getting to work with her real-life close friend and on-screen sister Gemma Bissix anymore.
Hollyoaks airs on Mondays-Wednesdays with its Channel 4 streaming 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.
Selected omnibus episodes are available via Prime Video.
Read more Hollyoaks spoilers on our dedicated homepage
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