Hollyoaks star reveals they’ve quit acting and are leaving the UK in emotional video to fans
A HOLLYOAKS favourite has revealed she’s relocated from the UK in a hugely emotional video addressing their “springboard into an exciting future.”
The Channel 4 actress, 42, has told how jetting away from home turf is part of a wider “healing” process both for herself and her family.
Ali Bastian has upped sticks to Ireland – a country which she holds dear – after suffering “major burn out” from London life coupled with a difficult second pregnancy.
The TV star’s best pal also passed away in 2023, just a week after her son was born.
Ali – who played Hollyoaks‘ Becca Dean – has now posted a tear-jerking video which starts with her bidding farewell to her bright white London flat.
It then pans in to the family’s flight to Ireland, before her daughter and husband are seen enjoying a packed lunch in the car as they head to their final destination in the west of Ireland.
Clips then show their eldest opening the wooden front door to their brand new pad.
Ali, clearly wanting fans be informed of the full picture, took the time to write a lengthy caption to accompany the scenes.
She wrote: “And now… the back story. Saying good bye to my London flat was very emotional, I’ve lived there for about 18 years.
“I rented it first and then bought it a few years later. It was the most secure I had ever felt… I moved around a lot as a child and for many reasons often felt very unsettled.
“This flat was my life raft through highs and lows of my career, through the madness of covid, it’s where my babies came home from the hospital, took their first steps.. all the magical mess of life. The good, the bad… the hilarious and then the heartbreak.
“I never thought I would want to leave but life had other plans.
I had a very difficult second birth and postpartum period with my second and in the end my little fam went to Ireland for a circuit breaker last year as my body just wasn’t healing.
“Two weeks after being in Ireland my c-section finally closed up, I was about 7 months post partum by then.
“My nervous system finally had the break it so desperately needed – I was certainly suffering a major burn out at that point and London life was just too much on top of everything else.
This flat was my life raft through highs and lows of my career
Ali Bastian
“When we came back to London there were more turbulent times to come and some tremendous losses that brought me to my knees. Too raw to go in to.
“Somehow I put one foot in front of the other for my husband and babies. The job of ‘performer and actor’ that I had done professionally since childhood has felt almost impossible to show up in, too vulnerable, too exposing.
“I never imagined the career that I have loved, the thing that was my escape from a challenging childhood would feel so difficult. That showing up publicly in my own skin could feel so out of reach.
“Performing – a survival strategy devised in childhood, no longer working. What to do? We needed to change something, my husband has been working every minute of the day trying to keep us going and to hold me and our girls through all this.”
We previously told how Ali, who is married to actor David O’Mahony – introduced their new arrival to the world in April 2023.
Back then, Ali revealed her second baby’s name, this being Isabella, and opened up on her dramatic birth story.
She told how her difficult birth experience had been followed by the passing of her “beautiful” friend.
Ali and Three Musketeers movie actor David O’Mahony, 41, already have a four-year-old daughter called Isla.
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Make a move
Talking of the exact moment they decided to relocate, Ali continued the tale in her post.
She wrote: “A little seed of hope had been planted last summer and a daydream, that turned into nightly discussions… could we do it? Should we do it? Could we make it work?
“Slowly a plan was hatched and here we are now sitting in our little house, overlooking the ocean on the West Coast of Ireland.
“This is more than a house renno project for us… this move has felt like our best chance of healing. Moving so far from what I have known to start the journey home to myself.
“This is more than a house renno project for us… this move has felt like our best chance of healing.
Ali Bastian
Acting still has my heart and I hope through my healing journey I can become a more connected and honest performer.
“Home. No longer needing to be a life raft but more a spring board into an exciting future.”
Ali joined Hollyoaks back in 2001.
She left the soap in 2007, when her character was killed off.
