EastEnders’ Lacey Turner was in tears when she was turned down for the role of Demi Miller.
The 32-year-old actress first appeared on the BBC One soap in 2004 as Stacey Slater, but the star was left heart-broken when she was rejected for the part of Joe Swash’s character Mickey Miller’s sister Demi, who was played by his real-life sister Shana Swash from 2004 to 2006.
Speaking on ‘EastEnders: Secrets for the Square’, Lacey said: "I originally came in for an audition for the Miller family. I went for an audition with them, and Tony Jordan was there and Julia Crampsie – who is the casting director for ‘EastEnders’ and many other things.
"I got down to the last two – it was between me and my cousin. I then went home and they rang me and said I hadn’t got it. I cried in bed. I went to bed that night and I was crying."
However, Lacey’s luck was to change as the casting director knew she would fit perfectly into another family on Albert Square.
She said: "But the next day I got a call from Julia who explained that Tony had said, ‘She’s not a Miller, she’s a Slater’. They told me they wanted to create a part for me and [asked], ‘Did I want to be a Slater?’
"It was the best thing ever. I used to work on the market in Borehamwood and I’d see [Kat actress] Jessie Wallace driving in and out. My house would back onto the Square so I could hear everything and see everything – and if I wanted to be anyone, in any family, it was the Slaters."
Lacey is set to return to the show next week after she took time off for maternity leave.
Stacey will come face-to-face with her pal Ruby Allen (Louisa Lytton), who has been doing the dirty with Stacey’s estranged husband Martin Fowler (James Bye).