ALL’S FAIR IN LOVE AND CARRIGSTOWN
Bombshell soap drama as explosive revenge is wreaked upon James
FAIR City’s Hayley Collins lands a “bombshell” this week as her plan of revenge on James Rafferty comes to a climax.
Rebecca Grimes, who has played feisty Hayley for nine years on the RTE soap, revealed how she delivers the final blow to unsuspecting James.
The 34-yearold Dubliner told us: “I get to play the dark side and back. Hayley’s about to drop a bombshell on James that will change the course of their relationship for ever.
“It’s going to be explosive drama.” Hayley has been plotting her revenge since she found out James and Zak Dillon were the ones who planned to kidnap her mum Sharon – and who took Carol Foley hostage instead. Rebecca said: “She really thought it was real and special with James. “When she found out about the kidnapping and realised everyone was right about him, she was really devastated. “That’s what’s kind of leading her to plan her revenge against him.” Rebecca said she can’t see a future for Hayley and James – once she reveals her faked pregnancy there’s no way back. She added: “It’s like George and
Martha from Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? They love each other and hate each other and they’re so dysfunctional.
“Her plan was to publicly shame James after the shame of the raffle. She knows the baby is the thing that will hurt him the most and hit him the hardest.”
Rebecca wed long term partner Paul Donegan on New Year’s Eve in an intimate ceremony at Angler’s Rest in North Dublin.
Despite some elements of her personal life echoing Hayley’s, she’s thrilled that hers is less chaotic.
She remarked: “The gulf is widening between me and Hayley, she’s stuck in chaos and I’m blissfully out the other end.”
Rebecca was the opposite to a bridezilla on her big day.
She quipped: “The night before the wedding I was in a hotel room with all my friends, they were literally handwriting the table plan and emailing it to the venue at 1am the night before the wedding. “As soon as I got married it was straight into this storyline. Carrigstown is a crazy world where anything can happen.”
Rebecca admitted she can’t escape her colourful character with fans approaching her on a daily basis.
She explained: “People call me Hayley in the street. It’s all ‘get away from James’ or ‘tell him about that baby’. A few people say I’m terrible faking the pregnancy. The public tell me they wish I’d go for a better suitor.”
Fair City continues on RTE One tonight at 8.30pm.
People call me Hayley in the street and tell me to ‘get away from James’