EastEnders' Michelle Collins confirms break from BBC soap for 'strange' new role

Viewers will see one villainous character leave in upcoming scenes on the soap. But fear not Walford fans, it's only a short break and she will be back very soon. Michelle Collins has announced her character Cindy Beale will depart Walford once more in the coming weeks.

Michelle is taking on a "strange" yet "exciting" new stage role, with the soap giving her some time off for it. As a result, Michelle is taking some time out of the show with Cindy heading away from Walford.

It will be over the summer and she will be absent from filming for a month, while it's not known yet how Cindy will leave and how long for. But fear not, Cindy will be bringing plenty of drama for fans in the meantime and when she heads back to the show.

Speaking exclusively to The at the British Soap Awards 2025, Michelle told us all about what's ahead on the soap. She said: "Well I'm going off in the summer. I'm doing my one woman show at the Edinburgh festival, called Motorhome Marilyn.

"I don't think she's anything like Cindy. It's a play about a woman impersonator lookalike who lives in a trailer and dresses as Marilyn Monroe. But she's 60, it's kind of strange.

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"It's about failure, lost dreams, and feeling like life has passed you by. She's an interesting character. I'm really excited to play it. EastEnders have let me have a month off so I'm very excited."

On what's ahead, she teased: "There's good, fun stuff, especially Pride. We've got Pride coming up. That's good, and there's fun stuff coming up with Elaine and Cindy about George." Michelle isn't hoping for a new love interest for Cindy any time soon.

She explained: "It's good there's no man in her life at the moment. She has got the business, she's getting more empowered as a business woman and I think it's good. I hope they don't put someone with her too quickly.

"I think she needs to find her feet again. I'm liking this fun side to Cindy and them bringing that out." There's drama ahead with love rival Elaine Peacock too, involving Cindy's ex George Knight.

She told us: "It's really fun, there's a lot of strong women on that show we all get along which really helps. She's got a big family, she's got a lot going on. She doesn't like her daughter-in-law, her daughter-in-law doesn't like her.

"But that's life, she wishes she could get on with her daughters a but more. But they're grown ups now." Michelle also defended her character's dark ways, adding no one was perfect.

She revealed to us: "She's complicated, she's complex, she's chaotic but she's passionate. At least she's not boring. We need imperfect people, we don't wanna see perfect people on TV all the time. She's a bit of a mess."

EastEnders airs Mondays to Thursdays at 7:30pm on BBC One and BBC iPlayer. * Follow Mirror Celebs and TV on , , , , , and .