SOAP STRUGGLES Where your favourite soap hunks are now…Emmerdale star offered PORN gig to I’m a Celeb scandal & horror waterfall plunge
THEY were the brooding, six-pack wielding, sexy hunks that dominated soapland – and won themselves a legion of fans in the process.
But despite having good looks, chiselled bodies and adoring fanbases that hasn’t always guaranteed an easy life for our favourite small screen stars.
Many are now unrecognisable, some have suffered horror medical problems, and others saw their work dry up completely after walking away from soaps.
Just days ago, EastEnders heartthrob Micah Balfour was revealed to be leaving Albert Square for good, with his final scenes already filmed.
In recent times, fans have also been gobsmacked by new photos of the heartthrobs they once adored and lusted over appearing online.
Just last month, James Sutton, who has sporadically played John Paul McQueen in Hollyoaks over the last 20 years, dialled up the heat with a naked snap on Instagram.
The beefcake, 42, shared a mirror selfie with everything on show and online steamed up glass hiding his privates, much to the delight of fans.
Actor James, who quit Hollyoaks last month, has also appeared in 260 episodes of Emmerdale playing Ryan Lamb, has had a few cameos in Doctors, Holby City and Casulaty.
The racy reveal is miles away from how he first looked when joining Hollyoaks back in 2006 as he has since undergone an ‘unrecognisable’ body transformation that’s seem him seriously bulk up.
And as we reveal, scores of other former soapland hotties have had rather surprising twists and turns in their personal and professional lives since leaving their roles.
Mike Parr
Since first appearing in Emmerdale as Ross Barton in 2013, Mike has shed his boyish image and bulked up significantly.
The 39-year-old has a physique that could rival most bodybuilders.
Mike Parr recently got approached about doing porn
And his hunk status has afforded him some bizarre opportunities – including a chance to star in a porn film.
The actor, who left the soap in 2018, shared the work offer on social media after his acting work dried up during the pandemic.
He jokingly wrote: “I WILL TAKE IT!!!.. After a year of not working this is actually looking like the only option I have left :)”
Former co-star Kelvin Fletcher joked “Why not?” in a comment on the post.
Luckily, there was no need as the actor returned to the soap last year.
He no doubt has other distractions now, however, after his girlfriend Isabelle Du Plessis gave birth to their first child Suzie.
Mike revealed the pregnancy wasn’t too smooth though – as his partner suffered Hyperemesis gravidarum – a severe form of nausea and vomiting during pregnancy, which he dubbed “cruel illness no woman should have to endure”.
Stuart Manning
Hollyoaks heartthrob Stuart Manning, 46, has come under fire since leaving the soap.
His decision to go into I’m A Celebrity…Get Me Out Of Here in 2009 caused controversy as he caught, killed and then cooked a rat with chef Gino D’Acampo, 46.
The duo faced animal cruelty charges and ITV was fined £2,000 for showing it on telly.
Nine years after the fiasco, Stuart briefly returned to Hollyoaks as Russell Owens, only to be killed off three months later.
The actor, who dated Liberty X’s Jessica Taylor in the noughties, is married and has also appeared on Ackley Bridge.
On Instagram, he claims to still be an actor and voiceover artist but hasn’t had any credits on his IMDB page – where actors’ appearances are listed – since 2018.
Stuart, who hasn’t aged a day from his TV apart for when occasionally sporting a thick greying beard, is married to Georgina Juma.
She describes herself on Instagram as “property, poet, songwriter, mum” and the events committee member for burns survivor Katie Piper’s charity.
Paul Nicholls
EastEnders hunk Paul Nicholls, 46, has struggled since his stint as Joe Wicks on the BBC1 show.
His partying spiralled out of control and in 1997 he quit the soap, later admitting he doesn’t remember much of his time acting in the series.
He said: “I can’t really remember it. It’s really weird. I remember driving to work and being on set a few times. But if I ever look back now, it’s just blank. I just can’t really remember being in it.”
Paul admitted taking drugs during this time and in 2008 he went public with his struggles, vowing to go tee-total.
Things were far from smooth sailing, however, and in 2016 he had a cancer scare after losing his voice.
It was eventually concluded that the lump was benign, but the stress of the scare saw him fall off the wagon with his boozing.
I’ve been in some very dark, horrible places, to the point where I realised I needed to start changing the way that I was thinking – otherwise I might not have been here
Chris Fountain
A year later, he had a horror accident at a waterfall in Thailand which saw him spend three days stuck at the bottom after falling when running away from wild dogs in Koh Samui.
He broke both his legs in the fall and was discovered to have 37 infections including dengue fever, malaria, and cholera.
Paul ended up spending six months alone in the hospital. Tragically, in 2019 the infections led to him having a devastating stroke.
“The right side of my body was paralysed. I knew it was a stroke,” he told The Sun at the time.
In 2020, he relapsed into drug addiction but has since got sober and returned to acting in Ackley Bridge.
But in October last year, he made a shock return to Walford – appearing on a video call to his dad David Wicks for a one-off cameo in EastEnders.
Stephen Beard
Hollyoaks actor Stephen Beard has a very different job these days
Hollyoaks bad boy Archie Carpenter, played by Stephen Beard, 36, proved a hit with the ladies both on-screen and off.
But it seemed acting wasn’t the career the young actor really wanted as he disappeared after leaving the soap in 2010.
Stephen initially changed to course to pursue a career as a surveyor and became the director of a global data centre.
The job change worked well for him and because he was one of the heads of a successful company that advised on billions of dollars of data centre transactions.
However, now Stephen has gone a step further by reinventing himself again as an international property expert and now works out of ultra-high-net-worth individual hub Dubai.
It’s a far cry from the drug-taking and drinking that personified his character on the Channel 4 soap.
Adam Rickitt
Adam Rickitt, 47, exploded onto screens as Nicky Tilsey in Coronation Street and has dipped in and out of the ITV show ever since.
But things have been far from easy for him. At 16 years old he suffered from bulimia and once weighed just six stone.
Bravely, he opened up about being sick 30 times a day in a bid to help other people suffering from the condition.
Since his stint on the show, he has struggled with scammers who stole almost £50,000 from him in an elaborate bank sting.
And just last year he shared a heartbreaking post, speaking of the “hard” year he faced and directly referenced his mum, who is believed to have passed away.
“Thank you for everything you did for me,” Adam wrote online. “The care and love, the support and guidance, and the character you instilled in each of us.”
He initially left Corrie to start a music career – and his first first single, I Breathe Again, reached number five in the UK in 1999.
Sadly, Adam became a one-hit wonder, with none of his following releases getting anywhere near as many sales.
But, in 2014, he became part of the supergroup 5th Story, on The Big Reunion, along with Kenzie from Blazin’ Squad, Dane Bowers from Another Level, Kavana and Gareth Gates.
Aside from his recent heartache, he has a happy life with Good Morning Britain star wife Katy and the couple have a dream home in Sicily, which they bought after remortgaging their UK home.
However their main base is Knutsford, Cheshire, where Adam runs a craft beer bottle shop called Dexter and Jones and is regularly pictured behind the bar.
Chris Fountain
Chris Fountain played teen heartthrob Justin Burton – who famously had an affair with his teacher Becca Hayton – on Hollyoaks from 2003 to 2009.
He then went on to play Tommy Duckworth in Coronation Street from 2011.
However, he was fired in 2013 when he was exposed as a masked rapper who had boasted of raping a woman in a sickening YouTube video under the guise of his alter-ego The Phantom.
Chris recently opened up about that time of his life.
He said: “I’ve been in some very dark, horrible places, to the point where I realised I needed to start changing the way that I was thinking – otherwise I might not have been here.”
The actor recalled his downfall, saying: “My life, my job, my image, my reputation – everything was just ripped away. Within 24 hours. I didn’t leave my house for four days.”
In 2022, he also revealed he embarked on a health kick and lost weight before suffering a terrifying stroke, which left him “speaking like a toddler”.
Speaking on This Morning, he said: “I found out that I have a hole in my heart. Apparently this is quite common but a blood clot got through the hole and moved to the left hand-side of my brain.
“As traumatic as it has been it could have been a lot worse. I could have lost the use of my arm or my face could have dropped.”
He spent five days in The Royal London Hospital where doctors diagnosed a Transient Ischaemic Attack (TIA) after finding the blood clot in his brain.
More recently, Chris has pursued his passion for music – travelling to Colombia and the US to perform as a DJ – and ran the London Marathon in under four hours two years ago.
Ricky Whittle
Ricky Whittle helped to prove the shaved head look remained as sexy as ever while playing Calvin Valentine in Hollyoaks from 2006 to 2010.
But in recent years he has looked very different, sporting bleached blonde hair and more recently a greased quiff.
Ricky, who was a contestant on Strictly Come Dancing in 2009, went on to make it big in LA after his character was killed off.
He has starred in the US remake of BBC drama Mistresses, action series The 100 and fantasy show American Gods.
He also has several film credits to his name, including 2024 action film Land of Bad starring Liam and Luke Hemsworth and Russell Crowe, as well as Netflix film Nappily Ever After and rom-com Austenland.
Back in his Hollyoaks days, Ricky dated his co-star Carley Stenson, who played Steph Cunningham in the soap.
And after moving to the US, he was linked to former Gossip Girl actress Jessica Szhor and Demi Moore’s daughter Rumer Willis.
He splashed £1.2 million on a lavish LA property back in 2019 but appears to return to London sporadically and was spotted on celebrity dating app Raya just a few months ago.
Jack Ryder
With “floppy, David Beckham style locks” and the face of an angel, scores of of EastEnders faithfuls drooled over angel-faced Jamie Mitchell, played by Jack Ryder until he was sensationally killed off in 2002.
His character was accidentally run over by Martin Fowler, who was jealous of Jamie’s friendship with Sonia Jackson. He died of his wounds in hospital.
Five years after departing soapland, Jack landed the lead in raunchy film Popcorn which was said to be a “laugh a minute filthy comedy”.
After that he bagged parts in Holby City, Silent Witness and Doctors, as well as a short stint on legendary radio drama The Archers.
Now Jack, 44, who was married to Hear’Say’s Kym Marsh for seven years until 2009, has turned his eye to writing kids’ books and nurturing young stars as an acting coach.
Fans were gobsmacked last year when he was snapped sporting grey hair and a salt-and-pepper beard.
He now has a daughter, born five years ago, with child psychotherapist partner Ella.