EastEnders icon Samantha Womack was left “devastated” when she was axed from the BBC One soap.
The actress was first catapulted to fame back in 2007 playing Ronnie Mitchell. Along with feisty sister Roxy (Rita Simons), the pair rocked up to Walford – and quickly became firm-favourites with viewers at home.
And it’s fair to say Ronnie’s time in Walford was not short of drama. From a tragic underage rape, and even swapping her dead baby for her close friend’s son, Ronnie was involved in a plethora of dramatic storylines.
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However, in 2017, it was confirmed that Roxy and Ronnie were going to be killed off in a huge twist. In one of the long-running soap’s most controversial episodes ever, the sisters met their untimely deaths.
(Image: BBC ONE)
Her final on-screen appearance came on January 19th, when Jack Branning went to see her corpse. Her her death, and the death of her sister Roxy, was ruled as misadventure after drowning in a hotel swimming pool together.
Following her exit, Samantha has spoken out about her soap axe. What’s more, it appears it was during her first meeting with a new producer at the time, that she learned about her character’s fate.
In an interview with John Bishop from 2017 she said: “It ended up with the character being killed off.” John then said: “That decision,” before Samantha chimed in and quipped: “Was not mine.”
John went on: “Did you go ‘oh thank god for that?’” as Samantha proclaimed: “No! I was devastated because I wasn’t planning to leave.
“I was waiting to meet the new producer [Sean O’Connor]. He was coming in, I was excited because I thought she [Ronnie] had got really dark and it become really over-sensationalized.
(Image: BBC/Jack Barnes)
“So with this new guy coming in, great, I’d heard he wanted to take it back to kind of reality, less murders. And I was thinking great, that’s right up my street.
Samantha went on: “So I met him the first time and he went, ‘I agree yeah, she’s too dark.’ I said ‘Me too she’s so dark’ and he’s like ‘I completely agree with you so we’re going to kill her’ and I was ‘like what?!’ First time I ever met him.”
“So yeah, I had to drown myself. That was really hard, having to kill someone that I loved.”
(Image: BBC/Kieron McCarron)
Meanwhile in November 2021, Speaking of her transition from TV to theatre, Sam told the Daily Star back in November that she’s sick of telly bust-ups.
She said: “I would say more of a theatre actress than telly now. It suits me much better in so many ways – the hours, for a start. I am awful first thing in the morning, I can’t function. They say people are either night or morning people – well I will happily sit up ‘til four or five am. But when you’re on a soap you have to get up at five.
“And I always fall out with everyone in television. Someone is always telling you what to do with your character – I just get really irritated and I end up arguing and then getting sacked.”
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Source: Celebrities - dailystar.co.uk
