Pauline Quirke: 'Hazel will be devastated if Aaron is found guilty'

Emmerdale's Pauline Quirke has said that her character Hazel Rhodes fears Aaron Livesy will be sent down for his part in Jackson's assisted suicide.

The mechanic - played by Danny Miller - handed his boyfriend the fatal cocktail of drugs when Hazel was unable to see it through. Quirke told Soaplife that the grieving mother feels "terribly guilty" for leaving the responsibility to Aaron.

Quirke said: "They were going along with what Jackson had planned. Hazel thought it was all going to be OK because Jackson had made sure it was. She was just thinking about what he wanted - everything else afterwards came as a huge shock."

Of Aaron and Hazel's bond, Quirke explained that the teenager is a source of comfort for Hazel. "They're the two people in this world that went through it," she said. "He reassures her it's all going to be all right. Obviously there are still a lot of doubts in her mind, but they have a close relationship."

However, with Aaron charged with Jackson's murder and facing trial later this month, the former Birds of a Feather star said that Hazel is "starting to panic".

"She's terrified she's going to fall to pieces in the witness box," Quirke said. "She feels under immense pressure to get it right, but to be honest she doesn't know what the hell's going to happen."

Adding that Hazel will be "devastated" if Aaron is sent down, Quirke concluded: "She feels terribly guilty she wasn't able to do what Jackson wanted at the last minute and that her act of letting Aaron give the drink to Jackson turned everything on its head.

"So whatever guilt she's got for what's already happened she will have that on top. As she says: 'I've already lost one boy. I don't want to lose another...'"

Miller recently told Digital Spy that he hopes to see Aaron and Hazel "happy again" and sharing a "nice, emotional moment" before Quirke departs the ITV1 soap.

> Pauline Quirke to leave 'Emmerdale'