Brave Hollyoaks star shares video of moment she stood up to ‘creep’ following her

Trigger warning: Article features shots of racist and misogynistic comments.

Hollyoaks star Ashling O’Shea has shared her ordeal after she was followed by a man through the streets of London at night.

The actress, who played Nadira Valli on the soap from 2022 to 2024, was walking to a bus stop near Shepherd’s Bush when she noticed that a man had been walking behind her the whole time.

Deciding to confront the man, Ashling took out her phone and began recording.

‘You’ve been following me this whole time,’ she said.

‘I came over here, you’ve been following me the whole time. I’ve gone to multiple bus stops, shall I just film you?

‘Every time I move you’re following me. Go where you need to go, I’ve got your face on video, why don’t you just go?’

The man didn’t have anything to say for himself,but continues to walk around the star while she films him.

‘I’ve got you and there’s a witness right here so why don’t you go away now. Go away now. Leave me alone.’

Eventually the man gives up and goes away, leaving Ashling shaken by the ordeal.

The actor is best known for portraying Nadira, Hollyoaks’ first professional matchmaker, who came to the village to assist her childhood friend as Misbah Maalik’s (Harvey Virdi) long-lost son, Shaq Quereshi (Omar Malik), in finding a wife.

However, the two best friends soon decided to tie the knot themselves in a marriage of convenience… which became decidedly inconvenient for Nadira, who started realising her sexuality when she developed feelings for Juliet Nightingale (Niamh Blackshaw).

Ultimately, Nadira couldn’t go through with the wedding and chose to be with Juliet. But the relationship was a rocky one, leading to a love triangle between Nadira, Juliet and Juliet’s fiancee Peri Lomax (Ruby O’Donnell).

Then Nadira became a suspect in Hollyoaks Death Of An Influencer story where toxic social media starlet Rayne Royce (Jemma Donovan) was killed by one of her friends. During this debacle, Nadira found new love with Rayne’s best friend Lacey Lloyd (Annabelle Davis) and the two fled the village together in search of a new life.

Since her soap debut, Ashling’s screen credits include series regular roles in Rebel Cheer Squad’ for BBC/Netflix, guest roles in The Crow Girl on Paramount+, and Temple for Sky . She also played the lead role in the stage play ‘Puppy’ at the Kings Head Theatre in 2025.

Opening up about her traumatic experience, the star shared a message alongside the video detailing her thoughts about the encounter.

‘I’m not quite sure why I’m sharing this, I don’t know whether it’s to raise awareness of the s*** we experience day to day, to open a dialogue about when men can do if they see situations like this, to publicly shame this man or whether it’s just a way for me to do something with my anger.’

Fortunately, Ashling found an ally when she noticed another man waiting at the bus stop.

‘At the point of this video I only felt able to speak up and say/do anything because there was a man present that I told about the situation. I had a witness. To clarify misused words on my story, I felt backed by his presence, not by his words or action.’

‘After this confrontation, when I was able to actually go to the bus stop I needed, there was a man waiting there I explained the situation and wanted to know if he’d be there a while. I didn’t want to be alone while that creep was still lingering around just in case.’

‘I didn’t know whether that confrontation truly scared him off, or just put pause on his plans and made him angry.’

Ashling ends the video on a positive note, by praising the man who helped made her feel safer, but pointed out that nobody did anything to confront her stalker, or escalate/de-escalate the situation.

‘This guy I chat to was so kind, we communicated via Google translate and when we got on the same bus he checked in with me at the beginning and end of his trip.’

‘Although I feel so grateful for each of these men being there in the moment, I wanna be clear that no one spoke up or took any direct action.

‘And that’s okay, we have no idea how dangerous a person might be and sometimes it’s enough just to feel seen.’

‘But sometimes it’s also just really scary knowing you don’t necessarily have back up, you just have a witness to whatever might be about to happen to you.’

After posting, it didn’t take long for the comments section to be flooded with messages of support.

One user wrote. ‘WTF. Thank you for posting this. If he did this to you, he’s definitely doing this to other women. I’m sorry this happend to you man. I’m so glad you were vigilant and able to stand your ground and film him. I know not all women could do that. If you reported this, I really hope they do something.’

Another simply expressed. ‘Ugh this angers and saddens me so much.’

Another wrote ‘So sorry this happened to you, I hope you’re ok. Let’s hope that one day we can live in a world where a woman feels safe walking alone at night’.

Unfortunately, not all comments were positive, and some trolls used the post as a soapbox to air their racist views, some of which Ashling shared to her stories, showing just how disgusting and vile the comments were.

The story was entitled ‘Go on have anuva couple while we’re here’. The trolls replied with comments like ‘usual suspects harassing women’ while another wrote: ‘you voted for migrant crime’.

After dealing with the vile comments, Ashling was understandably left exhausted and just wanted to draw a line under the whole experience, posting a follow up story with the caption.

‘Today has been hellish,’ she wrote on her stories. ‘Tomorrow let’s talk about ANYTHING else. That’s all, folks.’