Hollyoaks icon Anna Passey confirms long-term Sienna Blake and Cleo McQueen romance

What a year it has been for Anna Passey so far! The Hollyoaks queen has been at the centre of a number of storylines, including the aftermath of Ethan’s death, the loss of Dilly in devastating circumstances and now she has been pulled into the end of Abe Fielding too!. But that’s not all! Fans were taken aback by a curveball which saw her grow close to former enemy Cleo McQueen (Nadine Mulkerrin) after they worked together to try and bring abuser Abe to justice.

What followed was comforting words from Sienna who has been down the whole covering up deaths and taking revenge rodeo before. The new found bond led to a passionate kiss in the heat of the moment. Here, in a chat with Metro, she tells me exactly where the story might be going, her praise for Hollyoaks embracing sexuality fluidity and how much danger her alter-ego might be in from her murderous dad Jez (Jeremy Sheffield).

To view this video please enable JavaScript, and consider upgrading to a web browser that supports HTML5 video. Up Next. Buckle up, Sienna’s chaotic life isn’t going to get any less so in coming months!. When I first picked up the scripts I was expecting… not that! When you’re not in a story you watch it as a viewer and you don’t know what’s coming up with it, so I wasn’t expecting to cross over at all.

So when I got the script and read everything with Cleo, I was excited to be joining their story. Definitely. Since we jumped to the three episodes, we’ve seen a lot more of the community and people jumping in and out of each other’s lives which I think is really great. I enjoy working that way. In soap people tend to stick to their little groupings so it’s nice to be able to form relationships and jump into other people’s storylines, it keeps things exciting. It’s brilliant when you get characters who have existed in the village for years and you get something new and fresh out of combining new characters together.

I don’t know what’s wrong with my memory, I couldn’t even remember doing scenes together. Nadine reminded me of all the stuff we did over Joel way back when. From an acting perspective, Nadine is one of my favourites. I love everything she’s done and she’s always on my wish list of people I’d want to have scenes with. I love the character of Cleo and weirdly I think there are a lot of similarities of vulnerability in them at different points of their lives.

They’ve been through a lot individually and they’re part of big families that have lots of stories going on so it was really nice to hear that I would get some material with Nadine. It was wild! Absolutely not what I was expecting. If you’d have asked me a list of things that were on the cards for Sienna, I don’t think that would have featured. It was a big surprise but I was straight on board with it because weirdly it sort of makes sense to me.

When we saw Sienna with Summer in a previous relationship, it wasn’t that Sienna was changing her preferences or anything like that, with Sienna it’s all about the person. When Summer came into her life it didn’t matter that she was female – and that most of Sienna’s other partners have been male – she just found something in this person that she connected with. I absolutely believed in that relationship wholeheartedly and I think the same thing happened here.

With everything Cleo has been through and where Sienna is in her life – she’s not alone but she’s feeling lonely and isolated. She’s been integrating with her family and she didn’t realise there was this whole history with Martha, Jez and Patrick. Suddenly she finds herself in this situation that she’s not sure how she got into and she can’t tell anyone and with Cleo being mistrusting of people, these characters are in a bubble where they realise that nobody else can relate to what they’re going through – the moment Sienna goes into the bathroom, Cleo gets it and she sees Cleo.

She thinks: ‘I can’t tell you what I’ve been going through but I see where you are right now and it’s exactly how I feel inside’. This connection between the two of them has come about because of the situation that they’re in and they look into each other’s eyes and see something there. I think it’s a relief for her. I think she thinks so highly of Cleo. Cleo is many of the things Sienna wishes she could be. Cleo has a purity about her – she is a good person and she chooses the right thing when Sienna usually chooses the wrong thing.

Sienna can see a world where she could have been more like Cleo and she really holds her in high regard, despite the trouble they’ve had in the past. She is pure heart and that really attracts her. It’s a relief to look at someone and think you’re not going to judge me, and I’m not going to judge you. They get each other in a world where no-one else possibly could, and I think that’s a huge relief for Sienna.