Katie McGlynn received death threats over controversial racism storyline on Hollyoaks

Hollyoaks actress Katie McGlynn has revealed that she received death threats over her character's disgusting remarks about Chinese people.

The 28-year-old, who joined the Channel 4 soap last summer as Becky Quentin, has been hit with a wave of nasty comments following her character's vile prejudice.

The star has revealed that trolls have told her to "go die" and "watch out" over Becky's extreme views.

Speaking to The Sun, Katie said: "I’ve played bitchy characters before but I’ve never played anyone as ­controversial or extreme as Becky.

"I knew from the start that she was going to generate a lot of hate."

Katie said that she was "pretty thick-skinned" and often takes comments on social media with a pinch of salt.

Katie said that she usually just deletes and blocks the trolls and that, while she reads them, she doesn't take them seriously as it just means that she's doing her job properly.

"Everyone is meant to hate Becky, so we got it right," she said.

Becky was also an anti-vaxxer who peddled dangerous conspiracy theories - adding fuel to her trolls' fire.

Katie added: "I knew from the start what Becky was going to be like and where the storyline was headed.

"I wanted to do it because it highlights conspiracy theories, fake news and racism."

She continued to say that these were things that had been going around over the last few years and need to be tackled properly.

In spite of the horrific threats, Katie has not reported the trolls to police, saying she considers the hate a 'badge of honour'

The star also shared that she was more troubled by people who agreed with her ­character’s vile opinions than by the trolls.

Before the Hollyoaks role she was on Coronation Street (David Fisher/REX/Shutterstock)

She was showered with praise for her moving role in the soap (Getty Images)

The controversial character saw Katie U-turn completely from her sweet-natured Coronation Street character Sinead Osbourne, who Katie played on Coronation Street for more than seven years.

The actress had soap fans in tears when she left the ITV show in 2019, when her character died from cervical cancer just months after giving birth to son Bertie - a performance which earned Katie the Best Serial Performance prize at the National Television Awards the following year.

She said: "Becky was miles away from Sinead, and as an actress it was something I could really get my teeth into — even if it was quite challenging."

However, she said that she had also received direct messages from people telling her to go and die. "There was one saying, 'I hate Becky so much. She’s so vile and bigoted - I’m going to hunt you down', which was a bit alarming," she said. "Others told me I should watch out because they were coming to get me."