Rita Simons admits it was a "kick in the b******s" when she was told her ‘EastEnders’ character was being killed off.
The 41-year-old actress was keen to depart her role as Roxy Mitchell on the BBC One soap but was left devastated when she and her on-screen sister Samantha Womack (Ronnie Mitchell) were told their characters were going to die.
Speaking on ‘The Late Show’, she said: "It was a weird one cause I’d been there 10 years. I don’t want to say ‘we’ but it is ‘we’ cause me and Sam pretty much feel the same.
"I was ready to leave, definitely wasn’t ready to die. So when I was told we were dying – now I’m gonna swear – that was a right f**king kick in the b******s."
Rita’s comments come after Samantha recently blasted "short-sighted" ‘EastEnders’ bosses for killing off popular sisters Ronnie and Roxy, who died in a tragic swimming pool accident.
She said: "I understand they have to regenerate and constantly recast, but my complaint was when you have two characters who are embedded within the fabric of that community, by killing them completely you’re removing them from any future producer.
"It’s short-sighted.
"There was a period of mourning. Rita Simons was my pretend sister for nine years so when I got my next job and worked away from home, my real family and my fake family had been taken away.
"All my foundation and emotional stability had gone. I’d have loved to go back at some point."
The ‘Mount Pleasant’ star previously admitted it was "really hard" saying goodbye to her character.
She said: "I was devastated because I wasn’t planning to leave.
"I was waiting to meet the new producer [Sean O’Connor], I’d heard he wanted to take it back to kind of reality, less murders. So I met him the first time and he went: ‘She’s too dark, so we’re gonna kill her.’ And I was like ‘What?!’ So yeah, I had to drown myself. That was really hard, having to kill someone that I loved."
Rita Simons’ disappointing EastEnders departure
