Rishi Nair has revealed that the time was right for his Hollyoaks character Sami Maalik to leave the village.
In tonight's first-look episode on E4, Sami bid farewell to his family in order to return to London and take up a job at a big law firm.
"I don't want to say this is goodbye forever because we never know what the future might hold, but I feel like he's left at a good time," said Nair in an interview following his departure.
"We've seen him go full circle. He came to the village looking for revenge and was a bit of a villain at the beginning and we've kind of seen the real Sami and his soft side has come through.
"He acted as the dad of the family looking out for his younger siblings and they're growing up now and they're not kids anymore. He'll always be there but he doesn't need to be there every day."
Asked what he expects Sami to get up to in the capital, he replied: "Sami grew up in London, he grew up as a kid away from the Maaliks which is why he has a London accent, and in a way he's going back home where he was brought up, so I'm sure he has lots of friends and people that he knows there.
"Let's just hope he finally finds someone and gets married because he's been quite unlucky with women. The relationships have always kind of faltered for some crazy reasons so I'm hoping away from the village he has more of a settled, calmed-down life."
Nair had been on the soap for four years.
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