Who Killed Rayne Royce? is a storyline that ran from September 2023 to January 2024, when Rayne Royce was found dead in the swimming pool at her luxury manor party after the truth about her lies and deceit over the previous months came to light.
Romeo was in a toxic relationship with Rayne prior to her death. Rayne coercively controlled and manipulated Romeo, in order to isolate him from his family and friends, before subjecting Romeo to weeks of emotional and physical abuse.
Peri was Rayne's arch-nemesis. Rayne became jealous of Romeo's closeness to Peri following the death of Romeo's half-sister (and Peri's girlfriend) Juliet Nightingale and schemed to keep them apart. Moments before her death, Peri caught Rayne physically abusing Romeo and threatened to kill her.
Lacey was Rayne's best friend for years. Prior to Rayne's death, Lacey believed she was to blame for Rayne's ex-boyfriend Brent Taylor's 'death', but when she discovered Rayne's lies, Lacey ended their friendship, before telling Rayne she wished she was dead.
Prince fell victim to Rayne's lies and scheming. After being concerned for his best friend Romeo, Rayne spiked Prince before falsely accusing him of sexually assaulting her, which damaged his relationship with his friends, including Romeo, as Prince couldn't remember what had happened.
Rayne secretly filmed and posted a conversation between Hunter and his student Freya Calder online, which nearly cost him his job at Hollyoaks High School. Hunter also swore revenge against Rayne for the false accusations of sexual assault she made against his twin brother Prince.
Rayne manipulated Nadira into securing a holding deposit for the house she used for her mansion party, using money from her boss Rafe Harcourt's business. When Nadira noticed Rayne deposited the amount of money to cover the entire mansion, she confronted Rayne, who blackmailed and threatened to report Nadira for fraud.
Lizzie found herself at the end of Rayne's nasty streak after Faye Fuller picked Lizzie over Rayne for a promotion. Rayne set up Lizzie's half-brother Sam Chen-Williams by framing him for sending vile texts to Zoe Anderson, which caused Sam to leave the village after Lizzie struggled to believe his innocence.
Zoe was in a relationship with Hunter when Rayne posted the video of Hunter and Freya online. Zoe warned Rayne if she didn't stop her toxic behaviour, it would catch up with her. Rayne sent Zoe vile texts, posing as her ex-boyfriend Sam Chen-Williams, making Zoe believe Sam was obsessing over her again.
Rayne publicly taunted Phoenix during a live stream at her mansion party about him putting his son Thierry up for adoption. Phoenix later witnessed an argument between Rayne and Lacey and discovered Rayne lied about her ex-boyfriend Brent Taylor's 'death'.
Faye is a high-profile social media manager who had represented Rayne over the last few weeks. After Rayne's lies were exposed at the villa party, the Love Cave producers rejected her, which could've damaged Faye's reputation.
Brent was Rayne's ex-boyfriend, who had been coercively controlled and manipulated by Rayne into faking his death to boost her social media career. Rayne ordered Brent to kidnap Peri when she discovered the truth. After turning up at the manor party to convince Rayne to leave with him, Rayne tells Brent their relationship was reality, not real, causing Brent to get angry and vowing to make Rayne pay.
Culprit[]
Romeo Nightingale pushed Rayne into the pool in self-defence after she began attacking him. Rayne had previously suffered a head injury during a confrontation with Prince McQueen, who had pushed her to the ground.
