Hollyoaks' Steph Waring Speaks Out on Soap U-Turn and Shares How 'Lonely' Exile Left Her Feeling at 'Rock Bottom'

CRYING hysterically and blurting out desperate pleas to her soon-to-be ex-bosses, Stephanie Waring thought her world was “imploding” when she was axed from Hollyoaks in April 2024.

Fast forward two years, and the actress, 48, who had spent a staggering 28 years on the show, has surprisingly reprised her role as Cindy Cunningham in a shocking soap U-turn.

Stephanie Waring is now back on Hollyoaks – 30 years after making her debut Credit: Limepictures Steph was just 18 when she joined the soap as Cindy and was heartbroken when she was axed Credit: Channel 4

Steph has now told us why she was so desperate to return to the E4 soap after being brutally let go, and what stopped her from joining – which would’ve seen her follow in the controversial footsteps of her former co-star , 44 – to help pay her bills when acting work dried up.

Following her redundancy, Stephanie threw herself into auditions in a desperate bid to keep herself afloat, and to further her acting career.

But after failing to land a mainstream role elsewhere, Stephanie was desperate to head back to Hollyoaks, so much so she said an “instant yes” to the show’s bosses when they asked her to return as Cindy – before she had even heard what her comeback storyline would be.

She told us: “It wasn’t even the storyline … they didn’t tell me the storyline. It was just, ‘Would you like to come back?’ It was an instant, yes.”

During her two years away from the soap, Stephanie penned a memoir, Breaking the Script, and she became a certified life coach, resulting in her starting a business, Steph Waring Coaching, in January 2025.

Some thought this would spell the end of her acting career.

But Steph, who had a brief stint on – portraying Emma, a character who claimed ‘ alter-ego Jason Grimshaw was the father of her baby, only for it to be Charlie Stubbs (Bill Ward) – in a handful of episodes in 2006 and 2007 – didn’t turn her back on her trade.

When she found herself out of work after Hollyoaks, Steph claims she was at the “bottom of the pile” when it came to trying to land an acting job, and she believes her long-running soap role was to blame.

Stephanie – who recently shot indie film The Rebooted, alongside former Hollyoaks star Roxanne McKee, Primeval actor Andrew-Lee Potts and former star – said: “It was a case of just screen testing for various projects, and there’s a lot of competition.

“I think when you’re an actor, it doesn’t matter how much of a catalogue you have built up, or how many years you’ve done, I’ve been in the business for 30 years, you’re at the bottom of the pile when you leave, especially if you’re on a long-running soap.

“You’ve got actors out there who’ve been going for the auditions, getting the jobs. They’re on the forefront of casting directors’ minds. I didn’t feel that I was in a position that I would just fall int the top of someone’s list.

“So, you know, I had to humble myself and go, ‘OK, this is gonna take some graft,’ and that’s what I did.”

Stephanie was so desperate for a regular part she would’ve been prepared to accept another soap role – but, sadly for the star, such an opportunity didn’t arise.

Asked if she was ever tempted by any other soaps, she said: “It wasn’t on the cards. If another soap had come knocking, absolutely. You don’t turn down work, not in this climate. You can’t.

“I’ve done Coronation Street before, so, you know, there could have been a chance that they would’ve revived the character that I played, or if there was another character in the pipeline that I was right for, but that opportunity never arose.”

However, one career move she wasn’t prepared to make was to join adult subscription service OnlyFans.

Like Steph, her former co-star Sarah Jayne Dunn was also infamously sacked from the show – but for very different reasons.

Sarah was axed in 2021 after playing Cindy’s sometime rival and step-sister Mandy Richardson for 25 years, over the actress’ refusal to stop stripping off on OnlyFans.

The star has insisted she would never do OnlyFans like some of her co-stars Credit: Channel 4 Sarah Jayne Dunn joined OnlyFans before she was axed from the soap

Despite Steph’s audition woes, the star insists it never crossed her mind to sell X-rated content on the subscription site, like Sarah does.

Asked if she would ever join OnlyFans, she said: “Absolutely not.

“It’s never been something that I personally would want to do.

“I’m 48 now, and I do think everyone has the right to express themselves in the way they want, and especially as women. But it’s my personal preference.”

Steph has been very open about how much she struggled when she was axed from the soap Credit: Getty She begged bosses not to axe her but says she instantly said yes when she was asked to return

Stephanie was savagely sacked from Hollyoaks after 16 years on the soap, just months before the show’s output was cut from five episodes a week to three in September 2024.

As a result of the drastic change, the soap’s bosses were forced to make brutal cuts, including a huge cast cull of around 20 stars.

Steph was one of the victims, alongside the likes of Annie Wallace (Sally St. Claire) and Charlie Behan (Charlie Dean).

Following her departure from Hollyoaks, she wrote in her memoir about the awful moment ruthless bosses told her she was being let go.

Gary Lucy (Luke Morgan), Sarah Jayne Dunn (Mandy) with current cast members Stephanie Waring (Cindy), Nick Pickard (Tony), Jessica Fox (Nancy) and Ashley Taylor Dawson (Darren) Sarah Jayne and Stephanie together in 2018 Credit: Getty

At the time, Steph felt like “someone had died”, and she said the decision – which meant she cruelly missed out on Hollyoaks’ 30th anniversary in autumn 2025 – left her feeling like she “didn’t matter”.

She wrote in her book Breaking the Script: “It felt like someone had died. My whole world had fallen apart in that moment. Everything I thought I knew had been taken from me so easily. I felt like nothing – like I didn’t matter.”

Steph also told how she had pleaded to keep her job in the hope producers would see her “distress” and reverse their decision, but, instead, she was told she had just 12 more weeks left at Hollyoaks.

She wrote: “Hysterically crying, I repeated myself, hoping one of them would see my distress and take it all back. Had they made a mistake? My world felt like it was imploding.

“Through my tears, I demanded to know, ‘How am I on that list? Cindy is an original! I’m the longest-serving female character.’ “

But her panicked pleas fell on deaf ears.

However, two years on, Steph is feeling the benefit of the cast cull, after she was reinstated.

She explained how the changes made following the mass exodus of characters have had a positive impact for the lucky ones who remain.

The star told us: “I feel what is different this time around, because the cast is much, much, much smaller, is that everyone’s a main player.

“Everyone who is on the show at the minute is in story, and they’re gonna be on screen, you know, and it also feels like a really great work-life balance now, because it’s three episodes a week, not five, and it is 20 minutes, rather than the 30 minutes. The workload isn’t as heavy.”

However, she still misses the former full-on nature of the job.

She added: “But I would welcome the workload at the minute, because being at home for two years, even though I built a business, and it was quite lonely, you know, because I was always around people all the time.

“You know, seeing everyone every day. So that’s been a huge difference.

“But now it just feels like there’s a nice balance, because I don’t feel like I’m in loads, but I don’t feel like I’m sat at home waiting for the next script to arrive.”

Cindy super-fans are desperate for Steph’s scripts to drop through her letterbox, and they will be even more delighted when they hear the star has hinted that supporters will be “really shocked and surprised” by a huge upcoming plot involving her iconic character.

But she has remained coy on what exactly scheming Cindy has planned upon her return to the village.

Asked what fans can expect from Cindy’s comeback, she said: “There’s a lot. She has a lot of secrets, and there’s about a couple of big storylines coming up. One the viewers will see as soon as she comes back, and she is holding a few things back. She has history with Beth, her niece, played by Rebecca Ryan.

“That will all be unfolding over the six weeks of summer.

“And then, yeah, there’s something else that I think the fans will be really shocked and surprised by, which I’m so excited to be revealed.

“It’s not related to what she’s been up to. It’s not related to anything that the audience will be seeing on screen now.

“So, there are secrets, and it’s amazing. It’s all cloak and dagger at the minute.”

What we do know is Cindy is definitely back in Chester for the foreseeable.