Hollyoaks star Sarah Jayne Dunn will soon be leaving the soap opera after her decision to set up an OnlyFans account sparked concern from soap bosses.
Channel 4 is home to some of the UK’s most talked about series, from Great British Bake Off to recent crime drama Murder Island, but soap opera Hollyoaks is perhaps one of it’s most popular shows. Many of the stars have returned over the years, including Sarah Jayne Dunn, who’s been back entertaining viewers as Mandy Richardson since 2017 after making her debut back in 1996. However, despite Mandy being the focus of many dramatic storylines over the past 25 years, it seems her time in the village will soon be coming to an end.
Hollyoaks has now confirmed Sarah Jayne’s departure from the soap opera. This comes after the actor revealed she'd set up an account on subscription service, OnlyFans, in October.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xRy__UJNvpM
OnlyFans subscribers pay money to see content from different creators and the platform is known for allowing adult content. The actor reportedly explained that posting on OnlyFans was all about “empowerment and confidence” for her.
Sarah Jayne was also said to have expressed a desire to “take back control” of her image after she had previously posed for “lad’s” magazines early in her career. However, her new venture didn’t seem to go down well with Hollyoaks bosses, with reports suggesting they were having meetings with the star about her new OnlyFans account.
Now it’s been confirmed that after failing to reach a resolution, Sarah Jayne will be departing the soap as Mandy, with Hollyoaks declaring they take their responsibility to their young viewers “very seriously”.
As reported by Digital Spy, the Hollyoaks statement explained, “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.”
They went on to reflect upon how they had hoped to resolve the matter with Sarah Jayne and avoid her having to leave her iconic role as Mandy.
The statement continued, "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 of our most important storylines and we will be very sad to see her go."
Sarah Jayne Dunn herself has not explicitly addressed the recent news, though she did take to Twitter on Thursday November 4th, stating simply, ‘Thanks for all your support’.
It's not known when Sarah Jayne's final episode as Mandy will air or what her closing storyline might be. However, her on-screen daughter Ella and ex-husband Darren are both prominent characters within Hollyoaks. So it could be that Mandy's exit sees her come into conflict with them both as she finally puts the village behind her.
However she departs from the soap, Sarah Jayne's performance as Mandy throughout the years will no doubt remain a highlight for many viewers.
