Harvey Virdi has spoken out about the Misbah reaction to Leah’s betrayal of Imran, warning that the Hollyoaks character will not be handing out forgiveness any time soon when the truth about the affair finally surfaces.
Imran is due to marry his fiancée Leah Barnes, but Leah’s affair with Prince McQueen has been quietly unravelling behind the scenes. Monday’s episode, broadcast on 17 August, ended with a gut punch: Leah and Prince were caught sharing a goodbye kiss in the Maalik family’s back yard, and the moment was captured on camera.
Misbah reaction to Leah betrayal: ‘Her gut instincts have been justified’
Speaking to Digital Spy, Harvey explained that Misbah had her doubts from the start, even if she kept them to herself. ‘I think at first Misbah was quite worried about the wedding, she thought it was too soon,’ Harvey said. ‘But she’s a firm believer in following your heart. She’s done that herself and can’t really deny her son doing that. It took her a little while to warm up to the idea. Once she decided that she was fully on board, she wanted them to be happy.’
As for whether Misbah picked up on any warning signs about Leah’s behaviour, Harvey was clear: none whatsoever. ‘As far as she’s concerned, she’s made her peace, she’s accepted that it’s making Imran happy so that makes her happy too,’ Harvey told Digital Spy. ‘It’s going to be a big revelation.’
When the truth does land, Harvey made no attempt to soften what awaits Leah. ‘It would take a lot for Misbah to forgive Leah, because how dare she dump on her son like that? That’s a big thing, so she’s not going to forgive her easily. She was a bit wary at the beginning and her gut instincts have been justified. She had to dig deep to say to Imran: “You’re a grown-up, I support you.”‘
Harvey added: ‘Now this has happened, Leah is going to have to do a lot of grovelling before Misbah forgives her truly. When you break someone’s trust, you can forgive but you don’t always forget. Misbah would try to forgive and she would say to Leah, “We all make mistakes”. But it’s her little boy, no-one does that to her little boy and gets away with it!’
Wedding chaos: who knew what before the big day
The Misbah reaction to Leah’s betrayal will land all the harder given how completely she was kept in the dark, but not everyone arrived at the ceremony in the same state of blissful ignorance. According to Digital Spy, Vicky Grant did not attend the wedding because she was already aware of Leah’s affair with Prince, making her one of the few people in the know before the day descended into chaos.
There was upheaval on the eve of the nuptials, too. Metro News reports that Donny surprised Imran with a coasteering trip for his stag do, and the outing was captured on film, adding yet another layer to a storyline already drowning in footage that characters would rather did not exist.
Tuesday’s episode finds Leah looking to the future, ready to commit fully to Imran now that she has ended things with Prince. Imran, however, causes confusion by going missing on the morning of the wedding. When he finally reappears, he has a confession of his own to make, though exactly what he reveals remains to be seen on screen.
Leah’s infidelity on camera, Vicky’s unexplained absence, and Imran’s mystery confession all collide as the wedding day unfolds, and Misbah, as Harvey puts it, is the last person who will be offering Leah an easy way out. Hollyoaks airs on Mondays to Wednesdays, with its Channel 4 streaming premiere at 7am and an E4 broadcast the same evening at 7pm.
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