The actor took a break from the soap in January.

Hollyoaks star Richard Blackwood has revealed he’s left the show after four years.

The actor, who played Felix Westwood, temporarily left the village in January – though he was expected to return in the future.

In an interview on the Rated 18 podcast, Blackwood has now announced that he won’t be reprising his role on the soap, saying: “Okay, so officially I’ve left Hollyoaks now.”

On the reasons behind his departure, he added: “If you want to go further, you do three or four [years] tops, after that you are cemented into the show – your name is fixed, so casting people don’t wanna even see you.”

Hollyoaks has declined to comment.

News of Blackwood’s exit comes after a number of departures from the soap this year. Stephanie Waring recently filmed her final scenes as Cindy Cunningham, who she had played for almost 30 years.

Zain Rizwaan actor Jonas Khan, Hunter McQueen star Theo Graham and Norma Crow actor Glynis Barber are also among the 20 cast members who have left the show.

Last week (August 12), Kitty Draper star Iz Hesketh took to Instagram to hint at her exit from the show, revealing she is “unemployed” and looking for work.

The departures follow Channel 4’s decision to cut episodes to three 20-minute slots per week.

Before leaving the village, Felix learned that his partner Mercedes McQueen was having an affair with his best friend Warren Fox.

While confronting Warren about the affair, Felix was involved in the show’s road disaster stunt, which saw Ste Hay fatally knock Ella Richardson over with his car.

Felix and Warren then agreed to take a paternity test to find out who was the biological father of Mercedes’ twins.

It was then revealed that the twins have two different fathers, with both Felix and Warren set to become dads again.

Hollyoaks streams first online via Channel 4 each weekday at 7.30pm. Episodes then air on E4 the following day, before getting their YouTube premiere a week after that.