Gays in hollyoaks

‘It’s just something growing up, before you say those words ‘I’m gay,’ it’s the scariest thing in the world,’ he reflected to me.

‘Especially growing up in the early 2000s, there just wasn’t much representation and it’s embedded in. They had stories and their sexuality was just a part of them, it was never that this was a focal point of why they were in the show.

I remember talking to my agent about it, who was very cool and easy with it.

In his earlier roles, it was quite the opposite, as the first openly gay man playing a straight role as a leading character in a UK TV show.

For decades, it has led the discussion on some of the leading topics in the UK and the world, some that other shows in later timeslots haven’t dared even touch.

‘It’s not like, “We’re going to have a gay one, we’re going to have a lesbian in it or a trans person,” they were just lead characters. ‘The first Pride you go to – I don’t know if it’s changed now – in my day, you come to terms with your sexuality yourself, then you come to terms with it hopefully well with your parents and your friends and your family.

I did a couple of films over there but I didn’t really get to the point where I had to have those interviews and have those questions asked. It was like “Oh shit, that didn’t work!”

‘So I then had to do the cover of Attitude!’

Considering the climate for gay actors entering the industry now, he continued: ‘I had to go through that, it wasn’t terrible but it was a lot of thought.

‘There’s so much guilt from working and yesterday I had to miss sports day. A moment to mark that joint celebration of being free to be who you are.’

He added: ‘I nearly put a thing in to do a series of doing Prides all around the world.You know, really weird ones in strange places where it’s still difficult, which it is in many parts of the world, and it’s political and more profound.

I was playing a leading man kind of role, who was straight and had these different women.’

Jeremy opted to do an interview, but mention of it was so subtle in the piece that few people who read it actually picked up on the fact he is gay.

Laughing, he said: ‘The whole reason for the article really was to put it out there and not talk about it any more but no one got it.

Perhaps most notably, the chemistry between Kieron, 38, and former co-star Emmet J Scanlan drove the iconic ‘Stendan’ relationship to a cult status it will never shake off.

The freedom of being able to inject so much of himself into a character he plays made the comeback a bit of a no-brainer for the actor, who has come back over from Spain to take on the role.

And he has more to sink his teeth into as well, via a dalliance with dangerous newcomer Rex, played by former EastEnders star Jonny Labey. I think we always led the way with that.’

And if anyone should know, it’s Kieron himself whose character Ste Hay has been central to some of the soap’s most blockbuster storylines of all time.

Drug addictions, murder mysteries, far-right grooming, explosive affairs – he’s done it all, and his love for the show that made him a household name shone through when we chatted.