Hollyoaks twist: Milo’s big secret revealed – he killed the Cunninghams! Nathan Morris reacts

Confiding in Cindy about his tragic childhood in tonight’s E4 episode, Milo opened up about how he was bullied for being different and was branded a failure by his father. Working with his dad on his builders’ yard, 16-year-old Milo was desperate to prove himself and so took on an extra job and secretly drove off in his dad’s truck, underage and with no licence, only to cause a car crash and end up in a young offenders’ institute, rejected by his horrified family.

Stopping the sob story there, Milo later had a flashback to the crash which revealed a huge detail he had kept from Cindy – Mr and Mrs C were in the car his truck hit. Intercut with the characters’ final scenes from February 2004, we saw a young Milo at the wheel of the truck that claimed the lives of Tom’s parents when he was just four years old.

Riddled with guilt, troubled Milo has insinuated himself into the Cunningham house to protect them by way of atonement for killing their parents (Cindy was Gordon’s daughter, Helen was Mandy’s mum). But following this shock twist, what does the future hold for the character? In an exclusive interview with RadioTimes.com Nathan Morris, who plays him, gives us his reaction…

How long have you known Milo’s big secret that he killed Gordon and Helen Cunningham?

It wasn’t until I’d been here for about three weeks when I had a character workshop with our executive producer, Bryan Kirkwood, and some of the writers. Bryan played the clip of the Cunningham car crash from 2004, then turned to me really dramatically and said, ‘You were that driver!’ I was gobsmacked, it was just brilliant. Then he explained the backstory about how Milo had caused the crash and ended up prison and why he’d sought out Gordon and Helen’s children.

He obviously carries a lot of guilt, has that shaped him as a person?

Milo completely blames himself, even though it was an accident. Gordon was distracted at the wheel, Milo was underage and not a confident driver but he blames himself for their deaths. Knowing he caused this huge tragedy, He kept his eye on the family from afar. Now his mission is to keep the Cunninghams safe and together as a unit.

Would you describe him as psychopath?

No, a psychopath doesn’t’ care about anybody’s feelings just their own agenda, and go out of their way to harm people and hurt them. Milo doesn’t make the best decisions and may have gone a bit too far, but he’s not the villain and doesn’t enjoy the lengths has to go to keep the Cunninghams together, like meddling to force Tom to leave the Osbornes. Milo just wants the family to be happy – sometimes you need to do bad things to make good things happen. At least that’s his logic! I’d say his tormented.

Why didn’t he tell Cindy the whole truth in tonight’s episode?

Fear of rejection. He hates lying to those he cares about, and he loves the Cunninghams like they were his own family. But the longer he keeps this from them and the closer they get, the worse it’s going to be if and when they find out. If he told them now that they’ve accepted him the consequences would be catastrophic. We’re filming some scenes now where he almost tells them, but manages to stop himself…

There were many fan theories about what Milo was hiding…

I love the reaction and wasn’t expecting it. When we saw the tattoo people were saying he was either a Satanist or a Nazi, or they assumed he was going to end up killing someone within a month just because he had a tattoo! He did threaten DS Armstrong but Milo was terrified himself and it was to protect Cindy, not because he was psychotic!

Even though he wants to protect them, could the family be in danger from Milo as he’s been twisted by guilt?

He doesn’t pose a threat to the Cunninghams, he wouldn’t harm them. He interferes a bit though but always feels bad afterwards. The difference between Milo and someone like Mac Nightingale who loves the power and bullies others to get his own way – that’s not Milo at all. I feel bad when people are being harsh about him because he’s just trying to help people!

How far would he go to protect them? Would he kill?

Milo definitely sees himself as their guardian angel, hence the wings on the tattoo, and I don’t think he’d kill anyone. Not intentionally, but accidents do happen! He wouldn’t go to those lengths, he’s not a Warren Fox. But it depends how far the writers want to push it!

Does he worry Cindy will suspect something after learning about the crash?

If she starts to probe a bit more it will be on his mind about what he’ll say, and how he can wriggle out of it without lying. How long can he withhold the truth?

The flashback shows a young Milo, did you get to meet the actor playing your younger self?

Mini Milo! I never got to meet him unfortunately, I was meant to but my scenes were moved around the day he was filming. I was really disappointed. He was great though, had had the Milo blue eyes. Maybe they should do a prequel of Young Milo!

What can you tease about where the storyline goes next?

The Cunninghams don’t find out the truth but obviously viewers know. What I will say is it’s not the end of ‘mystery Milo’, there are loads of big twists still coming up. It’s just the beginning. Obviously the Gordon and Helen thing is a big reveal, but for me it’s still just a teaser…

Hollyoaks continues weeknights on E4 at 7pm and on Channel 4 at 6.30pm.