EastEnders star Gillian Wright reveals how she really feels about Lacey Turner's exit

Gillian Wright has admitted that she 'doesn't feel sad' thatLacey Turnerhas left EastEnders. Lacey has had two long stints on the programme as the Walford favourite since she started on it as a teenager more than 20 years ago but now, Gillian, 65, who stars as Jean Slater, the mother of Lacey's character Stacey, on the BBC soap, has spoken out after her on-screen daughter announced she was to quit her signature role once again.

Viewers will know that Stacey, who made her comeback to Albert Square in 2014, is set to take a break from the show as actress Lacey, 37, is intending to spend more time with her husband Matt Kay, and their three young children.

Even though they will not be working together on set every day in the near future, Jean is actually full of praise for the way Lacey has decided to tame time out.

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She told Inside Soap: "Everyone asks if I feel sad, and I don’t – I applaud her for taking a step back and reuniting herself with her family. There was a period of eight years where Lacey was on the show without me and vice versa, so we’re used to it, and I think we’re both very good at keeping each other present in our on-screen lives."

Lacey first appeared in the BBC soap in 2004 and was written out on Christmas Day 2010, just months after she was revealed to have been at the centre of the Who Killed Archie? plot for the programme's 25th anniversary. She then returned in 2014, but outside of her role on EastEnders, she has starred on other TV favourites like Call the Midwife and Our Girl.

Away from the screen, Lacey is mum to daughter Dusty, five, son Trilby, four, and their newest daughter Gipsy Olive, who was born in January this year. The family live in a stunning house in Hertfordshire, which they bought in 2020.

Just before announcing her decision to leave again, she admitted to OK!: "The older they get, the more you realise how quickly the little years pass. It’s bonkers. So I take it day by day, week by week.

“You feel guilty leaving them, but also guilty for not earning. It’s just never-ending. But we’ve got to stop judging and start supporting each other.”

Viewers of the BBC soap are currently watching Stacey dealing with the heartbreaking aftermath of thedeath of Martin Fowler (played by James Bye ), who declared his love for his former wife before tragedy struck. Shortly after our chat with Lacey, she confirms publicly that the time has come for herself and Stacey “to take a rest”.

Even temporarily stepping away is a brave move for a soap actor, given the rapid pace of the storylines, but EastEnders bosses have already promised that there’s “plenty more drama” to come for her – and made it clear that the door will always be open for her return. But for now, at least, Lacey’s focus is her family.

She and her childhood sweetheart Matt, 36, will be celebrating their eighth wedding anniversary in September after tying the knot in a stunning ceremony in Ibiza, watched by soap legends such as Jake Wood and the late Dame Barbara Windsor.

EastEnders airs Mondays to Thursdays at 7:30pm on BBC One and BBC iPlayer.

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