Nadine Mulkerrin hopes her son doesn\'t think she is "mental" for "screaming the whole time" while pregnant with him when she was acting out some hard-hitting \'Hollyoaks\' scenes.
The 26-year-old star gave birth to son Reggie two weeks ago, just weeks after filming a special three-hander episode which will see her character Cleo McQueen discover boyfriend Mitchell Deveraux (Imran Adams) has been cheating on her with Scott Drinkwell (Ross Adams), and she admits it was "amazing" that her unborn child was there when she shot the scenes.
Speaking about being pregnant while still at work, she said: "Everyone was amazing. The directors, the camera crews, everyone looked after me. I ate loads of biscuits, I got to sit down a lot.
"I did keep thinking, Reggie is going to be thinking, \'My mum is mental because she just keeps screaming the whole time,\' but hopefully he knows it was just acting.
"It was nice having him, and sometimes I\'d be doing a scene and he\'d kick and for a second, I\'d kind of be taken out of being Cleo. I found it quite funny to experience. It was amazing I loved having him in there.
"The director Paul [Riordan] was really clever with the angles and the camera. Normally holding a folder and Andy Mawer was the camera operator and he was amazing at trying to mask the bump, but it was funny.
"It\'s a good job I\'m not offended easily because the amount of times, \'We can see Nadine\'s belly,\' was shouted. It was a challenge but it\'s kind of like a nice little fun secret."
But Nadine - who shares Reggie with fiance and co-star Rory Douglas-Speed (Joel Dexter) - admits she was a bit "nervous" about learning her three-hander scripts with "baby brain", because she had so many lines to learn for the special episode.
She added: "Do you know what, they felt very different stylistic scripts, obviously I was a little bit nervous because I was thinking, \'How on earth am I going to remember this three-hander scene when I\'ve got baby brain?\' But I did it and I got there, and it was brilliant."
Nadine admits it has been a "scary rollercoaster" being a first-time mum but she enjoying the experience.
She said: "It\'s amazing, it\'s a scary rollercoaster and I keep panicking about little things and then keeping trying to just remember to chill, it\'s all going to be fine.
"Obviously, you just worry about every little thing but he\'s amazing and it\'s all good. He\'s just a dream and he\'s our best little friend. It\'s amazing we are just like a little team and we love him so much."
In the special three-hander, which airs on Thursday\'s (31.10.19) E4 episode at 7pm, Cleo will finally realise Mitchell and Scott have feelings for each other when she sees her boyfriend comforting Scott in hospital following the crane crash.
