Sarah Jayne Dunn accuses Hollyoaks bosses of leaving her feeling ‘violated’

Sarah Jayne Dunn has launched a new attack on Hollyoaks bosses, branding them hypocritical for firing her over her OnlyFans career.

Speak on the Dirty Mother Pukka podcast, the actress, 41, claimed she once felt ‘violated’ after a sex scene with an eager new actor.

She also accused bosses of making an unnamed actress cry after a nude shower scene she said was done on “their terms.”

A spokesperson for the soap has told MailOnline that they were ‘unaware’ of Sarah’s complaints regarding her time on Hollyoaks.

Sarah was famously fired from the Channel 4 soap, in which she starred as Mandy Richardson for refusing to stop doing her OnlyFans content.

But she claims she asked the soap’s executives if it would be okay if she put sexy pictures of herself on the website, and claims they gave her approval – only to later fire her for it.

Sarah, who occasionally played Mandy on the soap from 1996 until her firing in 2021, said: “They knew about it. I’d had meetings, I’d had zoom meetings. I told them I was considering the platform.

“They hesitated, they weren’t sure, and when I explained that I wouldn’t be doing explicit content — that’s clearly not my thing — I’d literally move my content from Instagram to OnlyFans, they agreed internally.

“The way the contract works is you have to get permission to do anything outside of the program. And I’m a good girl, I always have been, I’m very professional, so I took all the right paths.’

She said it was all fine “until I launched,” adding “so then it wasn’t fine.”

Sarah added that while program executives objected because it was an over 18s platform and the show had a youth audience, they knew that when they gave the go-ahead earlier.

She added, “Apparently a cast member complained. I would like to know (who), I have my suspicions.’

She believes the situation has “blown up so much” because Hollyoaks had lost control of images of her, but she did nothing other than the promotional photos she was contractually obligated to.

She lashed out at the “hypocrisy of the whole thing,” saying, “I think what annoyed them was the fact that I was taking control of myself.

“I went ‘this is what I do, is that okay with you?’, ‘we’re okay with that’, and then I did it and suddenly they weren’t okay with that.

“For me, reading it, it’s the fact that they have no control and can’t make money off it.”

When contacted by MailOnline, a Hollyoaks spokesperson said: ‘Duty of care for our cast and crew is of the utmost importance to us. We are not aware of any complaints from Sarah Jayne Dunn regarding the time she describes on the Hollyoaks set. Hollyoaks adheres to strict protocols on set to protect and safeguard our team.”

Sarah has previously said she plans to stop appearing on stage when her son Stanley, six, is a teenager.

Dunn also said double standards were applied because the show was eager to air sex scenes featuring stripped-down actresses — some going so far as to make those doing them feel very uncomfortable.

She said, “During those years and that kind of era of the show, it was very much like you pushed it to the limit, pushed it to the limit, let’s see how much we can get away with it.

“That’s why they had the late night versions of the show (spin-off Late Night Hollyoaks and Hollyoaks Later), where they had some girls pretty much naked.

“I remember living with one of those girls and she came home that night crying because she had to do a shower scene.

She was like, “I hated it — I was really uncomfortable”. Again, it’s okay if it’s on their terms, but not if it’s on yours.

“We also faced each other. I was really lucky to have a great group of best friends there and we are still best friends to this day. And we can’t believe it to be honest.

“I think the only reason we got through it and came out the other way around was because we had each other.

“When we were on set, there were a lot of scenes where the shot started at your feet and went up your legs.

“They were day in, day out. That’s what it was known for – the sexy stuff.

“We were either in underwear or in the shower scene where your towel falls and you get someone’s reaction. I remember one of the girls standing with two watermelons and her tits behind them.

“We were on set with a full crew. And then to be on set and feel so vulnerable and be (told) ‘on this scene you’re supposed to be topless, so we’re going to give you these little nipple covers’.

She continued, “I remember one of the times when I felt very vulnerable. I was in bed with a guy they brought in just for the episode, so I had never met him before, and we went on location to this hotel and we were in bed.

“I should have been naked, so I had a boob tube on and underpants underneath. This man had to lie on top of me and we had to kiss.

“And I remember feeling so vulnerable. I didn’t know who this guy was, I was half naked, he was on top of me, he had never acted before so when he started kissing me he really went for it. And the rule of acting is there are no tongues, you just don’t.

The crew consisted mainly of men. There’s that part of you inside that says “I don’t like this, just get me out of this situation”. And I remember feeling really violated. The whole situation was just uncomfortable.’

Sarah had also previously argued that her OnlyFans photos are no different from the annual Hollyoaks calendar she was tasked with creating for the soap.

OnlyFans is a subscription service website. While it has sexual content – from mild to explicit – it also contains non-sexual material.