EastEnders’ Samantha Womack was devastated when she found out she was being killed off.
The 44-year-old actress portrayed sly businesswoman Ronnie Mitchell in the long-running soap for nine years and couldn’t believe it when bosses dropped the bombshell on her last year that her alter ego was going to drown on her wedding day in a swimming pool in January.
Speaking to the Metro newspaper, the blonde beauty said: "I didn’t want her to die in the first place.
"You don’t expect that after nine years. It was a shock. I’d love her to come back but when you’ve seen a corpse in a coffin, I’m not sure how likely that is. I was so sad when they killed her."
But it wasn’t just Samantha who was written out of the programme as Rita Simons – who played Ronnie’s sister Roxy Mitchell – was also given the boot without much warning beforehand.
Samantha said: "I liked the character and the relationship between her and her sister.
"I liked the early days, when Larry Lamb was playing our father – that was when I enjoyed it the most.
"When it go a bit fantastical, it was harder to believe the character as much. She was threatening to kill people but she was a mother which I found harder to play."
And, although Rita is looking forward to whatever she takes on next, she admitted it was heartbreaking leaving behind the crew members she has worked with for several years.
She said previously: "Samantha would have a day where she couldn’t stop crying and I would be really cold and strong and I would look after her. Then the next day it would be me who’d be set off by a packet of coffee or whatever and she would be strong.
"I’m so exhilarated to be moving on and doing other stuff, but I left probably 150 crew that I adore – every single one of them, make-up, lighting, costume. I love them all, I’ve known them all for 10 years, day in, day out. It was that that kind of broke my heart, leaving them."
Samantha Womack didn’t want to be killed off in EastEnders
