Hollyoaks star speaks out on major cast exit: ‘I’ll definitely miss him’

Hollyoaks star Harvey Virdi has addressed Jonas Khan’s impending departure, confirming that she’ll ‘miss’ him.

The actress, who portrays Misbah Maalik on the Channel 4 soap, is currently embroiled in a storyline that sees her character forced to decide whether or not she wants to leave the village with husband Zain Rizwaan, played by Jonas.

Misbah comes to a decision in upcoming scenes and Zain is written out of the show in the aftermath, with Metro.co.uk confirming earlier this year that actor Jonas had completed filming.

Harvey, who has played fan-favourite Misbah for eight years, confirmed that her character will be sticking around but added that she will miss working with Jonas, who has been a series regular for two years.

‘I’ll definitely miss Jonas, but as an actor, I’m as excited as Misbah is about what’s next!,” she told Inside Soap. ‘I’ve enjoyed the little love triangle with Zain and Donny. It was such fun being stuck in the middle of those two. 

‘Zain was simmering with rage whilst Donny was being cheeky, and I’m trying not to smile! It shows no matter your age, if you fancy someone, you end up behaving like a teenager again!’

Hollyoaks is undergoing a number of huge changes at the moment, with the show set to decrease its weekly episodic output from five offerings to three, with a number of cast departures in the pipeline as a result.

Scott Drinkwell star Ross Adams and Warren Fox icon Jamie Lomas are both set to leave the show, with Lily Best (Lizzie Chen-Williams), Frank Kauer (Mason Chen-Williams) and Theo Graham (Hunter McQueen) all having exited on-screen, with Lizzie and Hunter being killed off.

Metro confirmed last month that Matthew James Bailey, who plays the hugely popular Ethan Williams, is also set to leave the show in the near future, which came as a shock to fans, while Jon-Paul Bell – who plays Beau Ramsey – is also reportedly set to exit.

Beau is in the middle of a big story, after he and Kitty Draper (Iz Hesketh) covered up the death of Declan Hawthorne (Alan Turkington).

Stephanie Waring, who plays Hollyoaks royalty Cindy Cunningham, confirmed in April that her character was one of those axed in the casting cuts, which came as a surprise to viewers.

In order to facilitate the move to three episodes, the long-running Channel 4 soap will take a time-jump in September, with events being set one year in the future.

Hollyoaks streams weeknights at 7:30pm on Channel 4’s streaming platform, or catch episodes on TV at 7pm on E4. 

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