| Cher Winters | |||||||||||||||||||||||
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| Hollyoaks character | |||||||||||||||||||||||
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| Portrayed by | Bethannie Hare | ||||||||||||||||||||||
| Duration | 2020–2022 | ||||||||||||||||||||||
| First appearance | Episode 5415 1 June 2020 | ||||||||||||||||||||||
| Last appearance | Episode 5779 3 February 2022 | ||||||||||||||||||||||
| Classification | Former; regular | ||||||||||||||||||||||
| Introduced by | Bryan Kirkwood | ||||||||||||||||||||||
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Cher McQueen (also Winters) is a fictional character from the Channel 4 soap opera Hollyoaks, played by Bethannie Hare. Cher is introduced as the estranged daughter of Sylver McQueen (David Tag) and is welcomed into the established McQueen family unit. Hare described her character as someone with attitude and strong family values, likening Cher to other McQueens on the soap. Portraying the role of Cher is Hare's first professional acting role and she admitted that she was initially nervous to join the cast of Hollyoaks, but accredited her co-stars with easing her nerves. She made her debut appearance as Cher on 1 June 2020. Her storylines in the seriew have included the revelation that she killed her younger sister, her tumultuous relationship with her stepmother Mercedes McQueen (Jennifer Metcalfe), her romantic relationship with Romeo Nightingale (Owen Warner), learning that Romeo and Mercedes have been having an affair, a suicide attempt due to feeling isolated, and dealing with the death of her father Sylver in an explosion.
Cher is introduced as having a secret, which is later revealed to be her accidentally having killed her half-sister Liza. Hare expressed shock at the secret but felt that knowing more about Cher's backstory allowed her to feel connected to her character. After Mercedes exposes Cher's secret to everybody in the village, Cher begins taking revenge on her in a long-running storyline that sees her "embrace her dark side".[1] Some of her actions include framing Mercedes for taking drugs, pouring baby oil on the floor for her to trip over, leaking a sex tape she features, sending her anonymous online hate comments, tricking her into believing she is pregnant and framing her for kidnap. Stephen Patterson of the Metro felt that Cher "made one heck of an entrance" and she was subsequently nominated for Best Newcomer at the I Talk Telly Awards.[2] Patterson described Cher as cruel following her actions to Mercedes, but praised both Hare and the character following Cher's suicide attempt. Hare has defended her character, stating that she is not evil and is instead lonely.
On 3 February 2022, Cher departs the village in Hare's final scenes, which were previously unannounced. Cher's exit sees her decide to mend her relationship with her mother, Kelly Winters (Jenny Wickham), due to the impact that Sylver's death had on her. Hare had planned to appear on the soap for two years from the beginning of her tenure and she told the producers in advance so that they could prepare her character's exit, which she felt was apt for Cher. She was proud of the journey that her character had been on in her two years on Hollyoaks and stated that her favourite storyline to film was Cher's suicide attempt, which she worked with the Samaritans on. Patterson wrote that she would be missed and felt that she "became part of the show's very fabric" in her time on the soap.[3]