Danny Dyer has decided to take a "short break" from ‘EastEnders’.
The 39-year-old actor has worked non-stop on the long-running soap since he joined the programme in 2013 as the loveable landlord Mick Carter and bosses have now agreed to give him some well-deserved time off in order to spend time with his family.
A spokesperson for the BBC exclusively told BANG Showbiz: "Danny is on a short break from ‘EastEnders’. This was not enforced by bosses nor has he quit the show."
His decision to have a temporary rest from filming comes five months after he tied the knot with his childhood sweetheart Joanne Mas in a romantic ceremony in Hampshire.
The smitten couple may have only just got hitched officially but they have been together since 1992 and have children Danni, 19, Sunnie, nine and Arty, two, together.
And Danny’s break from the show will unlikely cause any issues for writers as his on-screen wife Kellie Bright – who plays pub landlady Linda Carter in the soap – is also enjoying some time off following the birth of her second child Gene in November.
Kellie – who also has five-year-old son Freddy with her husband Paul Stocker – said at the time: "It’s such a cliché but it really is a love like nothing else. In that moment you feel like everything you need is right there in that room … I couldn’t believe in only seven hours he’d arrived and my whole world and changed again."
It’s not known when Danny’s alter ego – who has become one of the soap’s biggest characters – will leave screens but it’s thought his break will correspond with the departure of Danny-Boy Hatchard, who plays his son Lee Carter, later this month.
Danny Dyer is taking ‘short break’ from EastEnders
