Waring: 'I handle Hollyoaks better now'

Stephanie Waring has admitted that growing older has helped her to cope better with life on Hollyoaks.

The 30-year-old actress made her debut in the role of scheming Cindy Cunningham in 1996 and stuck with the part for seven years. She went on to make brief returns in 2002 and 2004 before securing a permanent comeback last year.

"There is a different vibe since I was here last time," Waring is quoted by PA as saying. "I'm a lot older as well so my life is completely different so I'm handling it a lot better than I probably did when I was 18."

She continued: "When you're 18 and start a new show you don't know anything about life. It will be difficult for anybody. But now after being away, doing other things and growing up you approach it from a different angle.

"It's work at the end of the day and you go home and you've got your family. And that's what it's about. Doing what you love."

Waring added that taking a break from the Channel 4 soap helped her to reconsider her priorities.

Discussing her original stint, she commented: "Obviously we went to parties and met lots of famous people and it was great. But I'd never done anything like that before so when you get thrown into that world you lose your feet a bit so you need to go away and go, 'It's about this, not that'."

The mother-of-one recently admitted that she wants to keep exploring her character's softer side on the teen drama.