EastEnders star Samantha Womack reveals she was ‘so scared’ in ’emotional’ Ronnie Mitchell admission
The Ronnie Mitchell actress addressed her feelings about being killed off on the BBC soap
Samantha Womack appeared on ITV talk show Loose Women(Image: ITV)
EastEnders star Samantha Womack has revealed that she was ‘so scared’ as she provided an ‘emotional’ Ronnie Mitchell admission.
Joining the BBC soap in 2007 alongside her onscreen sister Roxy Mitchell, who was played by Rita Simons, Samantha was one of viewers’ favourite characters in Walford.
Ronnie suffered many hardships over the years, including her daughter Danielle dying in front of her eyes, being abused by her dad Archie and being involved in the infamous baby swap storyline.
Viewers were left devastated on New Year’s Day in 2017 when Ronnie and Roxy died in a tragic drowning incident on the same day the former married Jack Branning.
Ronnie tried to save Roxy, who was drunk and jumped into a swimming pool in the wedding venue’s hotel. Sadly, Ronnie’s wedding dress weighed her down and the popular pair met their untimely deaths by drowning together.
With fans campaigning for years for the sisters to return in spite of their deaths, Samantha appeared on Monday afternoon’s (October 13) episode of Loose Women.
Currently starring in Dear England, a play about Gareth Southgate’s national team where she plays team psychologist Pippa Grange, Samantha looked back on how leaving EastEnders affected her.
Ronnie and Roxy met their end on EastEnders in 2017(Image: BBC/Jack Barnes)
“I think when you’re in a place for nine years, you’re playing that character every day and embedded in a family structure, you believe the people who are your sisters, brothers and cousins. You believe that they really are because you see them every day.
“You got through all kinds of emotional things together, the birth of your children and funerals. You get to know this wonderful group of people for such a long time,” she said.
Asked on if she ‘hated’ Ronnie’s death scene, she replied: “We kept saying, Rita and I, ‘what would happen if we kept swimming to the surface’. They couldn’t film it…
“I thought it was shot beautifully and in retrospect it’s very easy to hold on to safety. Particularly in our game. Being self-employed is terrifying.”
Saying that she ‘doesn’t know if it was a favour’ to have been killed off, Samantha noted her ‘whole outlook on life has changed in the last two years’.
She explained: “I got diagnosed with breast cancer and survived it for now. The beauty of every single little thing that happens to you, the ups and the downs, it’s the beautiful chaos of it all. What you’d miss if you weren’t here.
“I look back at that time and think I was absolutely blessed to be in a space with beautiful people for nine years. I was then blessed to have to start again in my 40s. I was so scared.”
Away from the spotlight, Samantha is married to her husband Mark Womack, who played the villainous Detective Inspector Mark Malone on Emmerdale.
“I always forget who he plays. We live in Valencia, we live in the mountains. We mainly talk about the rescue dogs who’s going to walk them in the morning, not the plot.
“For us it’s a job and we love it, but it gets left behind when we leave the set,” she stated.
