Big Sunday Mercury Interview: Samantha Womack reveals why she won't be returning to EastEnders

Jan 23 2012 by Roz Laws, Sunday Mercury

ACTRESS Samantha Womack has ruled out a speedy return to EastEnders – because it would be too harrowing.

Six months after leaving, she says she has only just recovered from being at the centre of one of the soap’s most controversial storylines and doesn’t feel up to going through it again.

She played Ronnie Branning, whose life was one long ordeal from being raped at 13 by her father, then falling pregnant and being forced to give up her child for adoption.

Ronnie was later told that her daughter Danielle was dead, only to be reunited with her – just minutes before she was run over and died in her arms. The final straw came when her son James died of cot death and she swapped him with Kat’s newborn son Tommy.

The storyline, which finally ended with Ronnie sentenced to three years in prison, prompted 13,000 people to complain to the BBC.

At the time, her agent talked of Samantha “taking a break” from the soap, implying she might well return. Well, I’d never say never to anything,” smiles Sam wryly. “How I feel might change in the future.

“But it feels far too soon to be involved again with that character

“I have recovered now and the idea of having to be in that kind of harrowing pain again is too much.

“She was so damaged, and there were aspects to her storyline that I didn’t agree with.