Stephanie Davis: ‘I was stabbed by my own feelings but now I’m in control’

Former Hollyoaks star Stephanie Davis knows what it’s like to have a life that feels anything but quiet. Her career has brought huge highs and difficult lows, while her personal life has sometimes played out in the public eye.

Now, though, things are very different.

The actress, who is 33, feels grateful for the life she’s built for herself.

There is no great drama waiting around the corner, and she has a belief that opportunities will present themselves when the time is right.

Stephanie arrived as Sinead O’Connor in Hollyoaks back in 2010. At the time, she was just 17 years old.

Over the years she played the role, Stephanie grew up on our screens. The young actress found being in the public eye incredibly intense, and, following her departure from Hollyoaks, she has been very open about turning to alcohol to cope with the pressures of fame.

Speaking to Metro via Which Bingo in a recent interview, Stephanie touched on the challenges she faced while at Hollyoaks but also reflected on her time at the soap with a sense of gratitude, believing that it was all part of her path and that everything happens for a reason.

‘It was a very big part of my life, I was very young when I started acting, and it was a very different time period in the industry’, she said.

‘I was 14 or 15 when I did Andrew Lloyd Webber’s Over the Rainbow on BBC One, which catapulted me into Hollyoaks. I was a child, basically, and I had to grow up in the public eye. That’s not easy. It’s hard enough growing up as it is, you know, let alone every mistake being put out there for everyone to see.

Stephanie added: ‘I believe that everything happens for a reason, and that was my path. I did fantastic work at Hollyoaks; I was nominated for so many awards, had some fantastic storylines, but for someone so young, it was just all a bit too full on for me. It’s different when you grow up and you’re a woman, and you have your own kids, and you reflect back to when you were younger.

‘I learned a lot of my craft at Hollyoaks. I learned everything that I know, really, and pushed myself to be a really good actress. I’m grateful for the storylines that I was given as well and trusted with.’

Stephanie is a single mum to two young boys. There’s Caben, who was born in 2017, and little Samuel, who arrived in 2025.

Life as a solo parent is tough but very rewarding. Stephanie noted in our chat that while she faces difficult days, they’re worth it when she experiences moments like her youngest kissing her first thing in the morning.

She smiled: ‘It’s amazing. Honestly, it’s the best thing in the world being a mum. It’s obviously very hard as well, but when you’re waking up and seeing your kids’ faces. My baby is still in the room with me; he loves co-sleeping. He’s so attached to me. When he wakes up in the morning and he’s starting to say all these little words, he kisses me in the morning as well.

‘When he wakes up, I’m just like, my life is so blessed. You can’t help but wake up smiling. It’s amazing, but very tiring at the same time.’

‘Sometimes you’re exhausted and then you’re like, I should really get to sleep early with the baby because he gets up at 5am. You think, I should really get an early night, and then I’m like, silence…I’m going to stay up and binge watch a TV show.

‘Women are amazing. We are something else. Because of the age gap I’ve got with my two, I was on my own with Caben, but he’s nine now. It kind of just got easy, and then it was back to the beginning, and now I’m on my own with both of them. It’s challenging, but I wouldn’t have it any other way.’

Something that really struck me when speaking to Stephanie was how self-aware she is. It’s clear from our conversation that she has spent a great deal of time working on her mental health, and she spoke very articulately about the ways she now looks after herself and manages difficult moments.

‘I started off with cold water. A therapist told me about it for years, and I ignored them’, she shared.

‘Putting your face in water when you feel like you’re gonna have a panic attack or you’re feeling really overwhelming emotions. I used to do the elastic band trick on my arm as well to distract myself. Obviously, as I’ve progressed over the years, I now help other people and give back; I try and help as much as I can.

Stephanie pondered: ‘My head is my biggest problem, and my head tells me lies. I can’t trust my own thinking, because my thinking won’t read the truth in a situation. I have to regulate and ground myself, and usually, that’s putting pen to paper so I can see it in black and white, because I can see the truth out in front of me. If I have resentments, I write down my resentments for people. I then look at my part: what did I do to be accountable.

‘If I feel fearful, I write down my fears. The other night I had fears, and I just sat and wrote a list of them. It just takes the power out of it. The biggest help is communication with another human being. If I feel rubbish about myself, I’ll call a friend and ask how they are, and it takes you out of yourself, and then you’re helping somebody else. Before you know it, you’re like, oh, that big situation feels like nothing.’

She reflected: ‘Feelings are real, but they’re not physical. I used to feel like I was literally being stabbed by my feelings when they used to be too overwhelming for me to deal with. I couldn’t cope with where to place my feelings; it was just too overwhelming.

‘They are just feelings; they’re going to come and go, and it’s just like waves of water, isn’t it. Sometimes it’s calm and peaceful, sometimes a big wave comes and knocks you over, but that wave is always going to go back out, and the weather is always going to change.’

As we turned our attention to the future, I was keen to know what Stephanie would like to do next.

Having grown up on Hollyoaks and more recently visited the cobbles of Coronation Street, Stephanie’s up for returning to soapland but is also hoping to be challenged elsewhere in the TV industry.

‘I’d love to venture out and try something else. Liverpool, where I’m from, I feel like as a city, we’ve come into our own recently. We’ve had Adolescence; there’s Jimmy McGovern writing for us. I would love to do one of his dramas. That’s at the top of my list.

‘We’ve had The City is Ours. I’d love to do a gritty Liverpool drama, or something completely opposite to what I’ve played in my life, opposite to Courtney or Sinead, and do a period drama or something completely different.’

Whatever comes Stephanie’s way next, she knows that the opportunity will arise at the right time:

‘[I] just [want] to maintain this peaceful, happy, grateful attitude that I’ve got towards life, and making sure my kids are happy.

‘Now I’m off maternity leave, I really believe in God and for him to place something when it’s the right time, and a really good drama for me to do that I’ll hopefully relate to other people to help them.

‘There’s not much I can ask for. I’ve got everything that I really need. I have a vision board as well; I’m big on vision boards. I have a picture of Jimmy McGovern in the middle and a little one of Stephen Graham as well.

‘It’s about putting it into the universe. You attract what you are.’