{"id":179039,"date":"2025-06-12T18:34:34","date_gmt":"2025-06-12T18:34:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/179039\/"},"modified":"2025-06-12T18:34:34","modified_gmt":"2025-06-12T18:34:34","slug":"hollyoaks-star-quits-soap-after-9-years-and-weve-already-seen-his-exit","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/179039\/","title":{"rendered":"Hollyoaks star quits soap after 9 years \u2013 and we\u2019ve already seen his exit"},"content":{"rendered":"

Hollyoaks<\/a> spoilers follow.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Hollyoaks star Rory Douglas-Speed has reportedly quit his role as Joel Dexter \u2013 and viewers have already watched his final scenes.<\/p>\n

This year, Joel has been involved in a huge storyline involving fake therapist Tommy, who made him think that he had killed his brother Billy during the show’s missing year<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Tommy used this to get closer to Joel, but as this disturbing stalker plot unfolded over a number of months, Joel discovered that Tommy had lied about Billy’s death<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Joel was furious, and while high on drugs, he confronted Tommy \u2013 and the next morning he woke up to find Tommy dead.<\/p>\n

\"joel<\/p>\n

Lime Pictures<\/p>\n

Related: <\/strong>Best streaming services<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

His wife Leela and mum Marie discovered what he had done, and Joel strongly considered covering his tracks, but Leela encouraged him to hand himself in for killing Tommy<\/a>.<\/p>\n

As a result, Joel was arrested for murder, taken into custody by corrupt cop DI Banks, and hasn’t been seen on screen since.<\/p>\n

But while it was assumed that Joel\u2019s story would soon be revisited, The Sun has reported<\/a> that Rory, who has played the character since 2016, has quit the show to explore new opportunities. <\/p>\n

\"leela<\/p>\n

Lime Pictures<\/p>\n

Related: Hollyoaks reveals bombshell affair accusation in new Ste and Lucas story<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

Surprisingly, this means that this final prison scene, which aired last month, was the last viewers will see of Joel for now.<\/p>\n

The publication also reports that show bosses have left the door open for a potential return for Joel in the future.<\/p>\n

\"joel<\/p>\n

Lime Pictures<\/p>\n

Related: Hollyoaks’ Robbie to face deadly ultimatum in Grace murder plot<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

We approached Hollyoaks about this story, and the show declined to comment.<\/p>\n

Rory’s real-life partner is co-star Nadine Mulkerrin, who plays Cleo on the Channel 4 soap.<\/p>\n

Cleo and Joel’s relationship was recently revisited once again<\/a> when the pair slept together during a rough patch in his marriage to Leela.<\/p>\n

Joel and Leela briefly split when his betrayal came to light, but the couple eventually got back on track.<\/p>\n

Hollyoaks<\/strong> airs on Mondays-Wednesdays with its <\/strong>Channel 4 streaming<\/strong><\/a> 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.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Selected omnibus episodes are available via <\/strong>Prime Video<\/strong><\/a>.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Read more <\/strong>Hollyoaks <\/strong>spoilers on our dedicated homepage<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

Digital Spy’s first print magazine is here! Buy <\/strong>British Comedy Legends<\/strong><\/a> in newsagents or <\/strong>online<\/strong><\/a>, now priced at just \u00a33.99.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Deals that might interest you\"Shop<\/a>Shop Sky TV, broadband and mobile deals\"Stranger<\/a>Stranger Things Hellfire Club Dice Dangle CharmCredit: Pandora\"Shop<\/a>Shop Claudia Winkleman’s Traitors looksCredit: BBC \/ Studio Lambert\"On\"Richard<\/a>Richard Osman: We Solve MurdersCredit: Viking\"Shop<\/a>Shop PS5 consolesCredit: PlayStation\"Shop<\/a>Shop Alison Hammond’s outfitsCredit: Mark Bourdillon\"Apple<\/a>Apple TV+ 7-day free trialCredit: Apple TV+\"Sign<\/a>Sign up for Disney+Credit: Chuck Zlotnick\"The<\/a>The Street of Lies: An Official Coronation Street Interactive NovelCredit: Octopus Books\"Death<\/a>Death in Paradise: The Puzzle BookCredit: BBC Books<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Hollyoaks spoilers follow. Hollyoaks star Rory Douglas-Speed has reportedly quit his role as Joel Dexter \u2013 and viewers…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":179040,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3937],"tags":[1380,73753,1331,77,3989,1330,73752,382,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-179039","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-tv","8":"tag-content-type-news","9":"tag-contentid-1007521a-aea6-431b-8a16-0b1a05bfdc0d","10":"tag-displaytype-standard-article","11":"tag-entertainment","12":"tag-hasproduct-true","13":"tag-locale-gb","14":"tag-shorttitle-hollyoaks-star-quits-soap-in-surprise-twist","15":"tag-tv","16":"tag-uk","17":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/114671837413041401","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/179039","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=179039"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/179039\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/179040"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=179039"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=179039"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=179039"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}