Hollyoaks star Lauren McQueen told fans she was "a mess" after watching her final scenes on the show on Wednesday night. The actress shared a photo of herself in tears after her last scenes as Lily McQueen aired, writing: "Thanks so much everyone who watched tonight. Yes I am a mess!"
Lauren followed up by sharing a number of photos with her co-stars, reflecting on her experience of being in the soap for the past two years and thanking fans for their support. "Lily McQueen will be forever in my heart! Thank you so so much for everyone’s support & messages on my last episode," Lauren wrote. "I feel so lucky to have been a part of @hollyoaksofficial I love that they aren’t afraid to confront challenging issues like Lily’s self-harm & sepsis. They tackled it beautifully and I can’t thank them enough for nominating me for Best Actress at this year’s @thebritishsoapawards."
Lauren McQueen said she was a mess watching her final Hollyoaks scenes
The 22-year-old has played Lily McQueen for the past two years and has starred in several high profile storylines, primarily based around her struggles with self-harm. Her character died alone of sepsis after her wounds became infected, despite pleas from her family and friends to stop hurting herself.
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Lily was planning to leave Hollyoaks village with her ex-boyfriend Romeo Quinn, but had been having second thoughts over whether she should go. The stress of the situation had caused her to self-harm again, leading to her tragic death after developing the serious infection.
Lily died after contracting sepsis
Lauren recently admitted that the harrowing storyline had a big impact on her, and she was in tears reading the scripts for her final episodes. "Lily doesn't even know she has sepsis – she just thinks she has a cold or something,” she told Inside Soap. “This story will hopefully make people more aware of the symptoms. It's a gradual thing throughout the episode. You see Lily getting worse and worse. But she just brushes it off and doesn't think anything of it."
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