Hollyoaks spoilers: Will Joel Dexter miss his baby's birth?

Joel Dexter on his wedding day to Leela Lomax in Hollyoaks. (Image credit: Lime Pictures)

Joel Dexter (Rory Douglas-Speed) has had a spat with his wife, Leela Lomax (Kirsty-Leigh Porter) after she discovered he’d been trying to contact his ex, Cleo McQueen (Nadine Mulkerrin).

In tonight’s Hollyoaks on at 7pm (See our TV Guide for full listings) he’s unaware that Leela is about to give birth to their much longed-for baby.

Leela Lomax with Abe Fielding. — Leela's waters broke when she was with Abe Fielding, Joel's brother. (Image credit: Lime Pictures)

At Dee Valley hospital, Leela’s labour is progressing fast.

The mum, who tragically lost her baby son Noah last year when he was stillborn, is panicking that Joel won’t get there in time and that something might go badly wrong.

He’s been ignoring her calls and instead is on a mission to track down his ex, Cleo McQueen (Nadine Mulkerrin) after becoming convinced he heard her voice in the flat above Price Slice.

Joel heads to the flat and starts banging on the door asking if anyone is there, leaving Cleo terrified on the other side of the wall.

Hollyoaks spoilers, Cleo McQueen, Abe Fielding. — Abe has been keeping Cleo (above) captive in their flat for the past year. (Image credit: Lime Pictures)

Leela is distraught that his ongoing obsession with Cleo has led to Joel leaving her in her hour of need but her brother-in-law, Abe Fielding (Tyler Conti) who's with her, tries to console Leela telling her she has nothing to worry about and that Cleo is thousands of miles away in Bali.

Things settle down at the hospital when the midwife shows Leela the baby has a strong and healthy heartbeat and everything is progressing normally.

As soon as Joel hears Leela has been taken to hospital he races to be by her side and finds his brother Abe with his wife and realises he has missed the birth of his baby girl.

Joel is gutted but delighted the delivery has been smooth. Meanwhile Leela can’t stop crying and tells Joel that she is feeling incredibly overwhelmed.

Back at the flat Abe is shocked when Cleo surprises him with new wedding plans and tells him that she wants the two of them to get away from Hollyoaks so they can start a new life far, far away.

Elsewhere, Darren Osborne (Ashley Taylor-Dawson) continues to be a missing person and Nancy feels compelled to share Darren’s history of depression with the police.

What has happened to Darren and is his family right to be very worried?

Grace with Mercedes in Hollyoaks. — Grace has been getting Mercedes drugs on the black market. (Image credit: Lime Pictures)

Meanwhile, doctor Misbah Maalik (Harvey Virdi) tears a trip off Grace Black (Tamara Wall) for getting illegal drugs for Mercedes McQueen (Jennifer Metcalfe) to try and treat her cancer.

Grace doesn’t care but Misbah insists she has to help restore Mercedes’ faith in the hospital treatment and get her back at the hospital for her appointments.

Will headstrong Grace take any notice and have the dodgy drugs just made Mercedes ailing health a whole lot worse?

Hollyoaks is available to stream from 7am Monday to Wednesday on Channel 4 or watch live on E4 at 7pm.

Tess is a senior writer for What’s On TV, TV Times, TV & Satellite and WhattoWatch.com She's been writing about TV for over 25 years and worked on some of the UK’s biggest and best-selling publications including the Daily Mirror where she was assistant editor on the weekend TV magazine, The Look, and Closer magazine where she was TV editor. She has freelanced for a whole range of websites and publications including We Love TV, The Sun’s TV Mag, Woman, Woman’s Own, Fabulous, Good Living, Prima and Woman and Home.