Hollyoaks confirms devastating abuse storyline as beloved character is controlled via eating disorders
Trigger warning: This article contains discussion of coercive control, physical violence and eating disorders.
Hollyoaks are working with the Home Office on one of their biggest stories of 2024.
The plot line, which will continue to explore Abe Fielding’s (Tyler Conti) abuse of Cleo McQueen (Nadine Mulkerrin), will play out across the rest of the year and peak in the summer.
Cleo returned to the Channel 4 soap in January and before long was joined by her new boyfriend Abe, the brother of her ex Joel Dexter (Rory Douglas-Speed).
Since their arrival, we’ve already seen signs of his troubling, controlling behaviour and this will continue into next week when he beats her with a bouquet of flowers.
As the physical violence continues, he will begin to distance her from the McQueen clan and use her past eating disorders to manipulate her behaviour.
At the time, Oaks worked with Beat to sensitively portray Cleo’s battle with bulimia. Nadine said of the story: ‘Cleo’s bulimia is triggered by feeling like an outsider and it’s her way of regaining control when she’s struggling to cope. I really want to do the storyline justice and tell a powerful story to educate people about eating disorders.’
The partnership between producers Lime Pictures and the Home Office is part of a Government campaign called Enough, which has been established to tackle violence against women and girls.
Speaking of the collaboration, Home Secretary James Cleverly said: ‘Tackling violence against women and girls is a real priority for me. We know that controlling and coercive relationships can have a lasting and severe impact on victims.
‘That’s why we made it a specific criminal offence and are making sure those convicted are monitored by the police in the same way as physically violent offenders.’
He continued: ‘By partnering with Hollyoaks, we’re raising awareness of how to recognise these behaviours as well as empowering the public to call out abuse when they see it and safely intervene when appropriate.
‘The campaign focuses on the role bystanders can play in challenging abuse, and this will be reflected in the storyline.’
Alongside the episodes, which will have integrated messaging surrounding violence against messaging, the soap’s digital team has also created bespoke informative add-ons that will feature across their social platforms and cast members’ own profiles.
As well as that, Enough campaign posters and beer mats will feature on the serial’s sets at the end of May and into July.
This isn’t the first time that Hollyoaks has worked with the government office. Back in 2022, they devised the ‘long walk home’ storyline featuring Nikki Sanderson’s character Maxine Miniver to highlight women’s safety.
