Ashworth family


The Ashworth family are a fictional family in the long-running Channel 4 soap opera, Hollyoaks. Introduced to the show in 2005, the family derives from Manchester and moved to Hollyoaks village in 2005. The characters have been involved in storylines such as secret siblings, anorexia, drug abuse, incest and paternity issues. With Phoebe McQueen, the deceased Rhys Ashworth's adoptive daughter`s recent murder in June 2015, there are officially no longer any Ashworth family members left in Hollyoaks, besides Darren Osborne, who between 2009 until 2011 was married to Hannah Ashworth; though, their marriage ended in divorce.

History

The Ashworth family first arrived in 2005, introduced by producer David Hanson. They moved to Hollyoaks village from Manchester with family friend, Gilly Roach. Nev and Suzanne had fallen in love at a young age and married, however, in 1986, Suzanne fell for Nev's younger brother Noel's charms and the pair slept together. After this, she gave birth to her first child, Rhys. Nev forgave Suzanne and Noel and they decided that Nev would raise the child as his own. In 1988, Noel had an illegitimate daughter, named Beth, to a woman named Mary. Noel visited rarely but did stay in contact with his daughter. In 1989, Suzanne became pregnant again, this time it was Nev's, they had a girl named Hannah. In 1991, Nev and Suzanne had Josh, their final child together. At a young age, Rhys fell into a river and almost drowned, however was saved by Gilly. The pair became best friends and Gilly became one of the family. Also close to the family was Jamie "Fletch" Fletcher, cousin of Rhys, Hannah and Josh, who was also his best friend. Although it was never fully established how Fletch relates to Nev or Suzanne, it is most likely one of his parents is Suzanne's sibling, given her maiden name of Fletcher.
In 2008, Emma Rigby, who plays Hannah, decided to leave Hollyoaks. Following this news, it was revealed that Rigby had extended her contract. Rigby again extended her contract, and left the series onscreen in January 2010.
Later in 2010, new producer Paul Marquess axed the family, except Andrew Moss, as part of his overhaul of the series. Neville, Suzanne, and Josh left for Spain in July 2010. Rigby expressed her feelings towards the family's exit, saying: "I'm sad it's coming to an end. I think they were quite emotional when they left. I don't think they were quite ready to go. But I suppose they'll all be doing new things."

In ''Hollyoaks''

A frequent visitor, Bill Ashworth is the father of Nev who adored Hannah, yet was not liked by Josh. However, Josh and Fletch began to see Bill was lonely, and ended up sneaking him out of his care home. Josh and Amy Barnes formed a band called the 'Baby Diegos' with Michaela, Sasha and Fletch. Josh made enemies of Ste Hay and Wayne Tunnicliffe. Hannah and Nancy Hayton babysat Grace Hutchinson for Tony and Mandy Hutchinson, that night, Grace died of SIDS, leaving Hannah and Nancy feeling shocked and guilt-ridden, believing it was their fault. After this, Hannah began a relationship with uneasy John Paul McQueen. After a night of joyriding, Suzanne gave Amy a check-up and discovered she was pregnant. She then warned Josh to stay away when the pair began a relationship. After the birth of her child Leah, Amy covered up and told Josh that Leah was her sister, born to Mike and Kathy Barnes. Mike became increasingly involved in Josh and Amy's relationship, this ended up with Josh nearly killing him by hitting him over the head with a brick. Josh was arrested, however Mike dropped the charges. After discovering Leah was really her daughter, Josh split up with Amy and told her he could not trust her.
When Sarah became a model and John Paul came out as gay, Hannah turned to Sarah's model friend Melissa Hurst for help and advice. Melissa taught self-conscious Hannah how to be skinny by hiding food and making herself sick. Soon, Hannah began an eating disorder and shut her friends out of her life. Sarah and Nancy assumed Hannah was on drugs. Suzanne then found rotting food in a sideboard in her bedroom and discovered the truth. Hannah was sectioned, both her and Melissa were put in hospital. Melissa escaped and planned to flee Hollyoaks with Hannah, however, tragedy struck when Melissa took a heart attack and died. Hannah was heartbroken by her friend's death but agreed to get help in hospital.
Rhys met Beth Clement when he accidentally ran her over, the pair soon began a relationship, however, not wanting to jinx it, Rhys did not introduce her to his family straight away. Beth stopped seeing Rhys, who was deeply saddened. Neville told Rhys that Noel had died of liver disease. At his funeral, Rhys was introduced to his secret half-sister, who turned out to be Beth. Rhys and Beth agreed to keep quiet about their affair, knowing it was incest. Gilly took an instant liking to Beth and they soon started going out. After months of holding back their feelings, Rhys and Beth slept together, realising they were in love. Beth felt guilty for cheating on Gilly so the pair left to go travelling to Thailand, which angered Rhys. After their return, Gilly proposed to Beth, who shockingly agreed. However, behind Gilly's back, Beth and Rhys began an affair. Meanwhile, recovering Hannah had found love in Danny Valentine, much to racist Nev's dislike. Michaela McQueen caught Rhys and Beth kissing and tried to tell Mercedes, who was Rhys's girlfriend. She refused to believe her, however Michaela got Gilly to return home in the hope he would find them in bed. Gilly did so and caught them in the act. After the secret was out, Rhys and Beth decided to flee together to escape the police. On their departure, Rhys and Beth crashed their camper van into a lorry which immediately killed Beth. Heartbroken Rhys then left for a short time. Hannah and Danny's relationship ended thanks to Darren Osborne and Mercedes
With he and Amy's relationship over and Fletch's addiction to drugs getting out of hand, Josh enlisted Rhys and Gilly to join the 'Baby Diegos', with a name change to 'Dirty Diegos'. Soon, the band broke up and Josh returned to the original line-up, he then attempted to get a record deal, but chose pregnant Amy, as the pair had reconciled, over his dream. Nev bought a few flats in Hollyoaks and then proceeded to buy The Dog on the Pond from Jack and Frankie Osborne. The pub was silent so Nev renamed it The Jolly Roger, this was quickly reverted on realising it had turned into a gay bar. Hannah met Matt Bowman, whom she began to see, however they soon split up. Josh and Amy split up after she gave birth to Lucas Hay and she abandoned him.
Hannah began a relationship with Ash Roy, who became jealous of Hannah's friendship with Justin Burton. Hannah began to realise her feelings for Justin. Ash and Justin challenged each other to a bike race. Ash fiddled with Justin's bike on order to hurt him, however, Hannah got on the bike and was badly injured. After finding out what he did, Hannah ended her relationship with Ash and, with the help of McFly, began seeing Justin. The Asworths were convinced Justin was a bad influence on Hannah. Ash seen an opportunity for revenge and planted food in Hannah's bedroom, which Suzanne found. The Ashworths went to extreme lengths to stop Hannah and Justin's relationship as they believed it was the cause of her "relapse". Hannah planned to leave Hollyoaks with Justin, however she was stopped by Rhys. Eager to leave, Hannah told Rhys that she could not choose who she fell in love with, just like him and Beth. Rhys realised this and let her leave. Hannah went to The Loft to find Justin and was knocked unconscious by Clare Cunningham, who had tied up Warren Fox and planned to kill Justin. Hannah came around as The Loft began to burn, she attacked Clare and the two fell over the banister, where they both lay motionless. Luckily, Justin appeared and saved Hannah, as paramedics struggled with her life, Justin assumed she was dead and left after being accused of starting the fire. With the police after him, Justin convinced Hannah to run away with him, however he realised it would mean she could never see her family again and left her. Hannah was heartbroken and angry over Justin's departure.
Rhys went on a date with Hayley Ramsey, but was put off by her wheelchair. The pair began a love-hate relationship in which Rhys denied liking her. The pair were thrown together in Josh's new band, 'The Somethings' and finally the pair gave in and shared a kiss and began going out. Trying to cope with Justin's exit, Hannah began to drink and spent many nights in the SUBar. She ended the night drunkenly kissing Gilly, which she regretted as they see each other as siblings. Hannah met a man named Stav, who was playing at the SUBar with his band. After, Hannah joined him in a trip to Denmark, where she drunkenly married Darren Osborne. On her return, the couple tried to keep it a secret but were found out. Suzanne tried to get Hannah to get the marriage annulled, however Hannah did not want to be a divorcee at her age and agreed to try to make the marriage work. Over Amy, Josh found a new friend, Dave Colburn, the pair set off for Manchester where they partied hard. In 2010, Hannah left the village. Josh was involved in a drunken car accident and was later jailed for drink driving. Suzanne and Neville's marriage began to strain. This subsequently led her to have an affair with Darren. After Rhys found this out, he alerted Neville, who then threw Suzanne out. Suzanne and Nev agreed to move away for a new life together. Rhys admitted he was responsible for Josh crash as the Ashworths left Hollyoaks.
Since the exit of his family, Rhys's main storyline has been his relationship with Jacqui McQueen. In January 2011 Suzanne returned to Hollyoaks before being paid by Cindy Longford who he'd later have an affair with during 2012. Josh Ashworth returns to Hollyoaks for brief appearance, before permanently departing in August 2012 with Michaela McQueen. In 2012, Rhys died during a tragic accident at Tony Hutchinson, Cindy, Doug Carter and Ste Hay's double wedding and Rhys` mother Suzanne Ashworth makes a one-off reappearance for his funeral, leaving none of the original Ashworth's in Hollyoaks. In 2013, Sinead O'Connor gave birth to Rhy's daughter Katy. As it stands, she was the only Ashworth in Hollyoaks, until she died after an illness. Rhys makes a brief return in June 2014 as part of Cindy's bipolar storyline. He appears as a hallucination in her mind. Rhys Ashworth`s adoptive daughter, Phoebe McQueen was murdered in June 2015, leaving Hollyoaks without any Ashworth family members. As of now, the only character left in Hollyoaks with any relation to the Ashworth family is Darren Osborne, who was married to Hannah Ashworth between 2009 until 2011. They ultimately divorced, severing Darren`s ties to the family.

Generations

Hannah's anorexia storyline gained large attention from the press, Hollyoaks being the first major British soap to go into a deep eating disorder storyline in which a character died, this being Melissa Hurst. The storyline was garnered with praise for showing the harsh realities of anorexia and bulimia. With actress Emma Rigby giving a message of advice stating:
She also said it was a real honour to take part in such a good storyline. Actress Emma Rigby has won numerous awards for her portrayal of Hannah and the storylines given including 'Best Actress' at The British Soap Awards 2008.