Hollyoaks legend drops huge hint she’s quit under-fire soap after 14 years on screen – amid brutal cast cull
A HOLLYOAKS legend dropped a huge hint that she had quit the soap after 14 years on screen.
Actress Alex Fletcher has played Diane Hutchinson in the popular Channel 4 soap for more than a decade.
Alex has now updated her Instagram bio and removed any mention of Hollyoaks.
Previously, it included her role on the soap, but now it simply states "BRITISH ACTRESS" followed by her talent agency's Instagram handle.
She has been portraying the role of Diane Hutchinson on the soap for the past 14 years.
Alex has been involved in numerous storylines, most recently she was shot in the siege at the pub.
More on Hollyoaks
Hollyoaks bosses have recently announced that significant cast reductions are in progress, accompanied by a brutal one-year time jump to 'fast-forward' stars out of the soap.
Hollyoaks' executive producer Hannah Cheers confirmed that the program will undergo a one-year time jump during its autumn stunt week in September before being reduced from five episodes a week to only three.
The "lost year" storyline, as announced in an official statement by Hannah, will sadly involve waving "goodbye to some much-loved Hollyoaks villagers - and some earlier than we would have expected to."
"When we started talking about the move to three episodes a week, we realised we needed a mechanism through which to transition our stories and characters and we kept coming back to this one", Hannah explained.
"It’s bold, daring and is a first for a UK soap, it sums Hollyoaks up perfectly.
"Fast-forwarding the show permanently by a year presents us with unlimited story possibilities."
Speaking about the job cuts within the show's line-up, Hannah added that "reducing the team in size is a tough consequence of this transition."
"It’s not kind to our characters or our audience to have a drawn-out stream of goodbyes on screen, and a heightened stunt didn’t feel like the right approach."
"We also want the flexibility to see favourite characters again and we got really excited about how this would work."
