Lily Drinkwell

Lily Drinkwell (also McQueen) is a fictional character from the British soap opera Hollyoaks, played by Lauren McQueen. She made her first appearance on 6 January 2017. McQueen had previously appeared in the soap opera as an extra and was happy to be cast as Lily, who was characterised as being feisty, studious and close to her family. Lily was introduced as the niece of established character Diane Hutchinson (Alex Fletcher), and Lily's initial storyline saw her moving in with Diane and her family following following the death of Lily's mother. Lily also becomes a love interest of established character Prince McQueen (Malique Thompson-Dwyer). Lily was then central to a dramatic stunt when she and other characters are involved in a car crash, which leaves Lily with scarring and deeply affects Lily's confidence. This and other factors cause Lily to begin self-harming, a storyline which was used to raise awareness and create conversation about the issue. Hollyoaks worked with four charities - The Mix, Mind, NSPCC and Samaritans - during the storyline. Lily continues hurting herself for months, and the character was central to a special episode focusing on several characters' attitudes towards self-harm. Following the episode, the storyline takes a darker turn when Lily begins self-harming with her friends Peri Lomax (Ruby O'Donnell) and Yasmine Maalik (Haiesha Mistry). Hollyoaks executive producer Bryan Kirkwood decided to explore the issue of group self-harm when he discovered that it was on the rise but not being talked about.

The girls' self-harm is found out and after briefly being hospitalised with sepsis, Lily receives help for her mental health. Lily and Prince's relationship is challenged when Prince has sex with Peri and is believed to have impregnated her, but it is later revealed that Peri is not pregnant and Lily forgives him. Lily and Prince end up getting married, but the marriage is almost sabotaged members of their families due to their opposition to the teenagers marrying. Shortly after their wedding, the couple face several issues, including a pregnancy scare and arguments over their future. Their relationship is further complicated by the arrival of Romeo Quinn (Owen Warner), who pursues Lily romantically. Lily initially is not interested but she gives into her feelings after almost dying in a storm and cheats on Prince with Romeo. McQueen explained that Lily has a connection with Romeo and keeps being attracted to him despite knowing that it is wrong to cheat on her husband. Romeo then hides Prince's testicular cancer diagnosis from Lily and she almost leaves with him; however, Prince ends up leaving the village instead, which was done due to Thompson-Dwyer's break from the soap to star in I'm a Celebrity...Get Me Out of Here!. In his absence, Lily ends up relapsing in her self-harm and begins a relationship with Romeo. Upon Prince's return, she is stuck in a love triangle and decides to pick Romeo.

In March 2019, it was announced that McQueen would be departing the soap in order to pursue other acting opportunities and that Lily would be killed off. In the storyline, Lily's mental health worsens and she relapses in her self-harm, which leads to her dying from sepsis. Hollyoaks chose to have Lily die from self-harm as they had portrayed several other mental health storylines that had had happy endings on the soap and they felt that they needed to show that it was not always the case. McQueen's final episode as Lily aired on 11 April 2019, which featured flashbacks of Lily's childhood and her death. Just prior to her death, Lily had run away with Romeo but ultimately realised that she saw her future with Prince. McQueen was in tears when she read her final episodes but she hoped that the storyline would increase awareness of sepsis to viewers and encourage viewers to talk about their feelings. Lily was very well received by critics and viewers. Lily's mental health and self-harm storyline was praised by viewers, charities and critics, although some viewers criticised the group self-harm plot. Lily's relationship with Prince was also well received and the pair were referred to by the portmanteau "Prily". Lily's death was also praised by critics. McQueen won and been nominated for several awards for her portrayal of Lily, as has her pairing with Prince and the 2017 self-harm episode.