Fifteen-Love ending explained: What happens to Justine and Glenn?

Boy oh boy, it sure was a tense watch following along with all six episodes of Fifteen-Love, wasn't it?

The series slowly amped up the pressure and tension as Justine Pearce (Ella Lily Hyland) took matters into her own hands to try and expose her former tennis coach Glenn Lapthorne (Aidan Turner).

After being confronted with his arrival at Longwood tennis academy, Justine went to the police to accuse Glenn of sexual assault five years prior when he was her coach. But after the hearing at Longwood and the fact that the charges weren't escalated by the police on account of a lack of evidence, Justine exited the academy and was left to try and pick up the pieces within her own life.

Except, she couldn't quite get Glenn – who had moved back to the UK and was the new high-flying face of Longwood – out of her head. So, what happened in the tense finale of Fifteen-Love? Read on to find out.

Fifteen-Love ending explained: What happens to Justine?

The finale opens up with Justine going to support Renee (Harmony Rose-Bremner) at her big British Tennis Championships match, but it's there that she also gets flashbacks of her own French Open experience.

Steve (Tom Varey) joins Justine in the stands asking whether he's asked Renee something, stressed that Luisa (Maria Almeida) could "cut and run at any time".

But as Justine watches Renee, more memories of her own match at the French Open start to come through and we soon see that five years ago, the medic was shouting out to her that she could "call" the match and end it, but she tearfully shooed away the suggestion.

In another surprising turn of events, Luisa angrily calls up Glenn to say she's not going through her pregnancy by herself and demands him to come to the scan with her. Glenn does so, but in the capacity as her coach and nothing else, so as not to alert suspicion from the nurses. He tries to suggest Luisa can go back to America and reminds her that she's at an important stage in her career.

Back at the British Tennis Championships, Renee doesn't win her match, but it's clear that all eyes are on her as Britain's next hopeful tennis prodigy, highlighting the work of her new coach and best friend Justine. But back in their room, Justine asks Renee about Glenn.

Justine asks if something happened between them after her wrist injury. Renee doesn't want to talk about it but Justine reminds her that she's been standing by not saying anything while Justine has been struggling.

Renee tells her that Glenn was in "bad shape" after the French Open after Justine ignored him. He decided to coach 15-year-old Renee instead of going onto another major player. Renee said the pair "messed around", saying: "I didn't want to but he did and it was just easier ... finally my game was really improving."

Renee says that although she didn't want to do anything with Glenn, she doesn't view him as a "monster". But she says that in the weeks after, Glenn blacklisted her, cut her funding and pushed her down the list. But now she's here as the next big tennis star, Renee doesn't want to look back on the past and doesn't want to be embroiled in an abuse scandal.

Khalida (Manon Azem) also starts to piece things together and Luca (Lorenzo Richelmy) informs her that the accusations about Glenn and Justine having a sexual relationship are true. Because of this, she lets Steve into their home and lets him make copies of some of Glenn's records.

In them, Steve finds out that there was another girl that Glenn used to take to his parent's estate in Harestock before Justine. Justine recalls staying in the guest quarters, but after Khalida mentions a girl having a green tennis skirt, Justine is left confused because she never had one. Looking back at the records, Steve and Justine scan the names that Glenn privately coached at the time, but Justine doesn't recognise any of them.

One of the suspiciously empty records is of "Polly", but they're none the wiser as to who that could be. Justine makes her way to Harestock to try to find evidence but gets seen by Charles' (Glenn's father) housekeeper. When she ushers Justine to come into the kitchen to have something to eat, she re-introduces her to her daughter, Apolenka.

Justine looks surprised and says "Polly", but Apolenka says that only Charles calls her that. She says she has her own gardening business built on a loan that Charles gave her. Justine tries to pry, asking her if she likes tennis and took any lessons. She says she did, that lessons with Glenn were a gift from Charles for her birthday.

When Justine presses her for more information about whether Glenn pressured her into anything, Apolenka says it's a "disgusting thing to say" and that "Glenn is like family". Charles calls Glenn to tell him that Justine is at the house with Polly so of course, Glenn rushes over. In that interim, Justine tells Apolenka that Charles would've known about Apolenka's abuse but let it happen because he and his son are entitled and used to getting whatever they want.

Glenn eventually makes it over to the house and tracks Justine down in the basement, confronting her about her claims over what happened at the French Open semi-final. Justine then runs out of the house and Glenn finds Apolenka, asking her if Justine said anything out of the ordinary.

But it's clear Apolenka has other things on her mind, and she drives off in Charles' car to find Justine walking away from the house. She tells Justine she was "relieved" when she realised Glenn was spending more time with Justine than her, and confirms Justine's accusations, stating she was just 14 at the time of her abuse.

After the trial and Glenn's sentencing, Justine chats to Mikki (Jessica Darrow) and states she's not at Longwood. We then see her training a group of young teens at the same inner city courts her father used to train her at when she was younger. Renee comes to watch and Justine seems happy as she practices serves with her players.

What happened with Justine and Glenn at the French Open?

Throughout the finale, we see a series of flashbacks interspersed throughout the scenes and come to realise that when pieced together, they give us our first proper look at what happened in the night before Justine's big French Open match.

We already knew her injury was fatal and that the medic advised her against playing, but how did her wrist come to be hurt so badly? We first see that Glenn injects her with a drug to numb the pain. But we see how in France, Justine and Glenn would sneak off unbeknownst to her parents, who were staying in the same hotel.

When Glenn confronts Justine in the present in his parent's basement, we see a flashback of that night revealing exactly what happened. In the flashback, Justine calls Glenn a "parasite" for the way he's clingy with her but ignores her in equal measure. He's kissing her when Justine says that she's "the one with the talent", and that maybe she's all Glenn's got in that respect.

Glenn tells Justine that she's the most important thing in his life. He rapes her, pulling Justine's hand back and badly damaging her wrist in the process.

Was Glenn guilty?

When Glenn tells his father that the police may ask him some questions, Charles removes Glenn's hand from his leg and says that it's more something that his mother should deal with, even though she is now dead.

Apolenka hands over her past letters from Glenn to the police, proving that he was abusing her when she was 14 years old. The police state that they haven't had concrete evidence like this. We then see that Longwood tennis academy and the British tennis association have suspended Glenn's contract, with Andi Woodward (Anna Chancellor) stepping aside in the running of the academy and Rushikesh 'Rusty' Raj (Amar Chadha-Patel) taking over.

The court trial then gets underway with Apolenka taking the stand and talking about her fear of risking her and her mother's home at Hereford if she was to speak out about Glenn. Other former players of Glenn's also take the stand, talking about how they would fake illnesses so as not to be coached by him.

Justine is the final one we see taking the stand, tearful when recounting her own story and stating that "nobody wants to hear" their stories because it's "always been happening".

Glenn doesn't have a final statement and the judge states that he's shown no compassion nor remorse for his victims, sentencing him to 10 years and six months in prison with subject to notification requirements to the police upon his release. He is also barred from working with young athletes.

Fifteen Love is available to stream on Prime Video from 21st July 2023 – try Prime Video for free for 30 days.

Check out more of our Drama coverage or visit our TV Guide and Streaming Guide to see what's on tonight.

Try Radio Times magazine today and get 12 issues for only £1 with delivery to your home – subscribe now. For more from the biggest stars in TV, listen to The Radio Times Podcast.