Hollyoaks star Paul Danan has died at the age of 46.
He played bad boy Sol Patrick in the Channel 4 soap Hollyoaks in the late 1990s and early 2000s.
He later appeared on the celebrity versions of Love Island and Big Brother.
Announcing his death, Danan’s management said in a statement: “It is with heavy hearts that we share the tragic news of the passing of @pauldanan at just 46 years old.
“Known for his television presence, exceptional talent, and unwavering kindness, Paul was a beacon of light to so many.
“His untimely departure will leave irreplaceable voids in the lives of all who knew him.
“During this difficult time, we kindly request respect and privacy for Paul’s family, friends, and colleagues. No further comments will be made at this time.”
Danan’s last post on his official Instagram page was a short video audition for the Shakespeare play Twelfth Night, in which he was reading for the role of Orsino. He posted it one week ago, commenting on how “beautiful and exhilarating it is” to get stuck into new work.
DJ Fat Tony was one of the first to pay tribute, calling him “one of the sweetest men,” saying Danan’s death at such a young age “hurts so bad”.
The actor, who trained at Italia Conti drama school, regularly called for his return to Hollyoaks.
He later began the podcast The Morning After With Paul Danan, which lasted from 2019 until 2023.
Danan had appeared twice as a contestant on Celebrity Love Island in 2005 and 2006, but did not win either series.
In 2017, he took part in Channel 5’s Celebrity Big Brother, where he was evicted early. He said at the time he hoped the series would give him a “second chance” at his career.
He’d also appeared on shows including E4’s Celebrity Coach Trip, and Channel 4 sketch comedy programme The Kevin Bishop Show.
He also had a role on CBBC show The Queen’s Nose, playing Melody’s agent Max.
Danan had spoken openly about his issues with substance abuse and poor mental health, and told The Sun a relapse over lockdown had left him homeless.
He went on to set up a theatre company called Morning After Drama in Bristol, offering free workshops to vulnerable groups.
Danan had also planned to set up a linked charity, The Other Side Of Morning CIC to offer community projects around the country. He had shared news about the charity on TikTok in late December.
Danan leaves behind his nine-year old son, Deniro.
This breaking news story is being updated and more details will be published shortly.
Molly-Mae Hague has said her new fly-on-the-wall documentary will “answer a lot of questions” surrounding her recent break-up with Tommy Fury.
The couple, who met during the 2019 series of ITV2 reality show Love Island, announced they were going separate ways in August last year.
The split sparked rumours that Fury, 25, had cheated on Hague, also 25, which he later denied.
Speaking at the launch of the first three episodes of a new Amazon Prime documentary Molly-Mae: Behind It All, the influencer said she is “very honest” about the breakdown of her relationship with the boxer, which she said has been “incredibly hard”.
“It is real life,” Hague said. “Tommy and I have a baby together, and it’s a really hard thing that we have both gone through.”
The couple have faced scrutiny that the break-up may have been a publicity stunt, as it coincided with the launch of Hague’s clothing line, Maebe and Fury’s book, Lightning Can Strike Twice: My Life as a Fury.
They were then pictured celebrating New Year’s Eve together, leading to fans speculating if they had got back together.
When questioned on it, Hague said accusations their break-up was planned is the most “frustrating thing”.
“I wish it could have been a publicity stunt because it would have been a lot easier,” she said.
“Going through all of this with the turmoil of a break-up has been incredibly hard, to have those comments, and I do see the comments, I see all of them.”
She added: “Our relationship has always been in the public eye but to deal with this break-up with millions of eyes watching it is hard and it is complicated.
“The reason why I don’t comment on it or speak about it on my YouTube publicly is simply because we are both navigating it ourselves, we both are figuring it out as adults and parents.
“I really do think the documentary is going to answer a lot of questions and we do touch on [the New Year’s] situation. The last thing I want is any confusion, and I don’t want people to feel confused by things that are going on.
“When I agreed to do this documentary I agreed to do it fully, the highs, lows, good days and bad days it has all got to be in there.”
“I couldn’t be the partner that I wanted to be anymore,” he told the magazine, adding: “Cheating was never a thing. You can ask Molly this yourself. It was the drink, and the drink is not a good thing.”
‘I did struggle with motherhood’
The new documentary also gives viewers behind-the-scenes access to Hague figuring out how to juggle being a mother to one-year-old Bambi, who she shares with Fury, and launching a new business.
“It’s not a secret that I did struggle at the start of my motherhood journey,” Hague said.
“It’s been an ongoing struggle for me, but right now I am in such an incredible place with being a mum and motherhood is all I could have dreamed of.
“I really want to work on my fashion brand this year and focus on being a mum. I want to leave a lot of the things that happened last year in last year and focus on the positives.”
She added that ahead of the documentary coming out, she feels like she needs to get her “thick skin into play”.
“These three episodes are what they are, and I hope [the public] enjoy them. The reason we did the series in two drops was because a lot of the things we touch on in the first three episodes are very current and ongoing, and it is real life and I really wanted to share the honesty with my audience and explain things to them.
“It just felt like the right thing to do.”
Molly-Mae: Behind It All episodes 1-3 launch exclusively on Prime Video on 17 January. The latter three episodes will drop in spring 2025.
A French woman has been mocked on social media after losing more than €830,000 (£700,000) to scammers posing as the Hollywood actor Brad Pitt.
The 53-year-old interior designer, known only as Anne, thought she was in a year-long romantic relationship with the Fight Club and Ocean’s Eleven star.
But after opening up about her ordeal to reporters, she suffered so much trolling that the French television channel TF1 had to pull her interview.
“The story broadcast this Sunday has resulted in a wave of harassment against the witness,” TF1 presenter Harry Roselmack wrote on X.
“For the protection of victims, we have decided to withdraw it from our platforms,” he added.
At the time of the broadcast, Anne was reported to have been suffering from severe depression.
Anne told TF1’s Seven to Eight show that, after starting to use Instagram for the first time, she was contacted by someone posing as Pitt’s mother.
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“She told me that her son needed someone like me,” Anne explained. The scammers messaged her again several days afterwards, this time posing as Brad Pitt.
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Anne said she began talking to the fake version of the actor sometime in February 2023 on different social media and messaging platforms, including WhatsApp.
Images from the TF1 programme have been widely shared online, showing a number of AI-generated images of Brad Pitt in hospital, designed to trick Anne in believing she was interacting with the 61-year-old actor.
“At first I said to myself that it was fake, that it’s ridiculous,” Anne explained to TF1. “But I’m not used to social media and I didn’t really understand what was happening to me.”
Scammers began requesting money, telling Anne that Brad was in hospital with kidney cancer and needed money for treatment. He claimed his bank accounts were frozen during divorce proceedings with ex-wife Angelina Jolie.
She eventually agreed to transfer a large sum of money to a Turkish bank account after receiving an email from the fake star’s “doctor”.
Scammers ‘deserve hell’
Anne said she finally realised she had been scammed after she saw pictures of the real Brad Pitt with his current partner, Ines de Ramon.
“I ask myself why they chose me to do such harm like this?” she told TF1. “I’ve never harmed anyone. These people deserve hell.”
Police are investigating the scam, but the interview has triggered some social media posts making jokes at Anne’s expense.
French newspaper Sud Ouest reported that Anne was going through divorce proceedings with a millionaire entrepreneur at the time and needed hospital treatment for severe depression following the scam.
A spokesperson for Brad Pitt told Sky News: “It’s awful that scammers take advantage of fans’ strong connection with celebrities.”
They added it was “an important reminder to not respond to unsolicited online outreach, especially from actors who have no social media presence”.
Tommy Fury has opened up about having an alcohol problem – citing his drinking as the reason for his split from Molly-Mae Hague.
Hague, 25, shocked fans in August when she announced the end of her relationship with her then-fiancé, with whom she shares daughter Bambi, who turns two later this month.
Both stars had, until now, refused to publicly reveal the cause of the split. Fury, also 25, has now said the break-up came after he began “drinking quite a lot” while unable to train after hand surgery.
“I’d go out and just drink and drink and drink,” he told Men’s Health. “It went on that way for a long time.
“Most nights I would to drink to get black-out drunk. I think that’s what really took its toll on me.”
Shooting down claims he was unfaithful to Hague, Fury added: “Cheating was never a thing. You can ask Molly this yourself. It was the drink, and the drink is not a good thing. You need to get a grip of it.
“We broke up because I had a problem with alcohol and I couldn’t be the partner that I wanted to be anymore. It kills me to say it, but I couldn’t. I loved a pint of beer, loved to drink.”
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Fury, who was seen spending New Year’s Eve with his ex, added he has “got himself out of that [drinking] now”.
Hague’s break-up announcement came just weeks after she had referred to Fury as the “love of my life” to mark their engagement anniversary on Instagram.
She later told Vogue UK: “No one will ever really know what went down apart from Tommy and I.
“I do think that he will talk about things eventually. I do think that when he’s ready, like, maybe more will be said. But I think that’s for him to do on his terms.”