Exclusive: Hollyoaks stars break down jaw-dropping Cindy and Imran twist

Hollyoaks spoilers follow.

Hollyoaks revealed a huge bombshell in today’s special flashback episode – not only were Imran Maalik and Cindy Cunningham romantically involved, but they were behind Ste Hay’s shock kidnapping!

Actors Ijaz Rana and Stephanie Waring have spoken exclusively to Digital Spy for the first time about this latest twist for their characters, and you can see the full video chat at the top of this page.

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On keeping the truth about Ste’s disappearance a secret, Stephanie said: "It’s been so hard but so rewarding, because we wanted the payoff with the audience. So for it to not have been revealed as a spoiler or for people to not have gotten wind that we were involved… nowadays everything’s spoiled, so it’s been really exciting."

Ijaz added: "The fact that the audience finds out before other people in the village as well is a nice touch too, because the audience will know something that the characters don’t. It will be really nice to see how that plays out."

In today’s LA-set episode, viewers discovered that Cindy and Imran each discussed their past family turmoil that either Ste or his ex-husband James were responsible for.

When they were both back in the village, Imran spotted an opportunity to take revenge – organising Ste to be kidnapped and framing James for the crime.

"I think that for Cindy, it was the fact that there was no justice for Ella, her niece, when she tragically died at Ste’s hands," Stephanie reflected. "And I know it was an accident, but there was no comeuppance for him.

"It was something that she relayed to Imran when they were in LA, that if she just had one wish, it would be that justice was finally served. They bonded over their shared trauma of what Ste had done – but this one took it a little step further."

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Ijaz said: "Even with the radicalisation and everything that Ste had put the Maaliks through on that side of the story, I feel like everybody else had managed to find a resolution for it in their minds.

"But Imran struggled to do that and we see that all play out as well. So I think it is justified if you look at it through the right lens, definitely."

While Cindy is usually at the heart of a crafty scheme, this time she realised that their plan had gone too far and tried and failed to stop Imran in his tracks, but Imran pushed on regardless and even roped in Ste's son Lucas.

"The way that it all unfolds, it kind of falls into Imran’s lap," Stephanie explained. "It’s not something that he carefully constructed, there was an opportunity and he seized it. Then when he tells Cindy about it, Cindy’s very shocked and she’s like, ‘well, no, this was all talk. You can’t go ahead with this.’

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"And then I feel like it was Imran who then manipulates Cindy into helping him. And I think that’s weighed heavily on her conscience – because she has one, believe it or not!"

But while it remains to be seen whether or not Imran will ultimately be caught out for being the mastermind behind Ste's kidnapping, Ijaz makes clear that his character's feelings for Cindy are very real…

"I think Imran falls head over heels for Cindy and is willing to do anything that’s right,” he said. “He will go to the ends of the earth to make sure that their relationship sustains because he genuinely does love her."

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.

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