EastEnders’ Rita Simons confesses she was forced to leave the show
Rita Simons has broken her long silence on the backstory behind her EastEnders exit.
The actress, who is best known for playing Roxy Mitchell on the long-running BBC soap, was on our screens for 10 years.
Viewers last saw Roxy on New Year’s Day in 2017, as she tragically drowned in a swimming pool alongside her sister Ronnie (Samantha Womack), on the day of her wedding to Jack Branning (Scott Maslen).
Excitingly, fans can expect to see a glimpse of Roxy in tonight’s episode, as she briefly re-appears to console her daughter Amy, who has been struggling with self-harm and grief over her mother’s death.
Ahead of her short return, Rita has now revealed that she never wanted to leave the show, and she especially didn’t want her character to die.
In an interview with The Sun, the 46-year-old recalled the "toxic" environment the EastEnders set had at the time.
“I got pulled aside a couple of days before filming the final scene by an exec, who I cannot name for legal reasons, who said to me, ‘There are a lot of people upstairs who don’t agree with this,’” Rita explained.
“So what I was hearing was that people above did not agree,” she continued. “Why they couldn’t help, I don’t know. The politics there was so fraught at the time.”
The mum-of-two went on to describe herself and co-star Samantha as “targets of the hit list,” as the pair were given just eight weeks’ notice before their characters’ unwanted deaths.
“It did feel personal at the time but I have to add a lot of the cast were scared to speak,” Rita admitted.
Rita has since praised new Executive Producer Chris Clenshaw as being the reason behind her brief return.
“The show is its best ever, and the whole place is different,” she exclaimed. “I wouldn’t come back if it was still in the state it was in and I wouldn’t have come back for anyone other than Chris,” she added.
EastEnders continues tonight at 7:30pm on BBC One.
