Kieron Richardson has signed a new contract with 'Hollyoaks'.
Kieron Richardson as Ste Hay
Fans of the Channel 4 soap were worried the 31-year-old actor - who became a father to twins Chase and Phoebe over the summer - had quit the show after his alter-ego Ste Hay was arrested for the brutal murder of his ex-girlfriend Amy Barnes (Ashley Slanina-Davies) earlier this year but, now that he has been cleared of the crime, the hunk has confirmed he'll be sticking around in the Cheshire village.
Speaking to Digital Spy, Kieron said: "I've signed a new contract this year, which is massively exciting because it means I'm going to be doing my 1,000th episode. Considering the show has only done 4,000 episodes, it's a massive achievement."
And Kieron has teased that bosses are planning to give him a special episode to mark his milestone but, at the moment, he doesn't know what they have in mind.
He explained: "I think there's going to be some nod to the 1,000 episode marker, but I don't know what it'll be yet. Maybe they'll do nothing in the end, but I'm still super proud to have survived 1,000 episodes and not been killed off!
"Even after doing all those episodes, I still feel like I'm learning every single day and that's the beauty of being in 'Hollyoaks'.
"All the time, amazing new actors are coming in, younger kids are joining the show and I'm still trying to steal bits of what they do to put into my character."
Kieron doesn't know what producers have in store for Ste over the next coming months, but he'd liked to see his character get back together with Harry Thompson (Parry Glasspool) - even though he has revealed he accidentally killed Amy.
He explained: "I know it's going to be very tough for Ste and Harry to get past this situation. Don't forget that Harry didn't call an ambulance for Amy and he let Ste go to prison. So not only did Leah and Lucas lose their mum, they lost their dad too thanks to Harry not speaking up. I don't think it'll happen overnight, but it'll be nice for them to get back together, just for Ste to be more settled in his relationships."
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