EastEnders' actress Danielle Harold has shared her future plans after she was "axed" from the soap.
Danielle has played Lola Pearce for a number of years, first for four years from 2011, before she returned to the BBC One show in 2019 alongside Lexi and Ben. However, she is set to depart the show later this year.
Reports have suggested the exit came out of nowhere for Danielle, as her character is 'axed' from the programme alongside four other big names - but she has now opened up about her plans going forward when the time comes for her to leave.
Speaking to the Daily Star, she said: " EastEnders has been such a big part of my life, but I can’t wait to start something new. I want to work on other things and play other characters. I can’t wait to get out there and see what’s possible.
"I'd love to do a drama. I want to do something completely different to soaps. I’d love to get back to doing some films as well."
Reports surfaced a couple of weeks ago about Danielle's exit, with a source saying she was blindsided by the decision.
"Dan was in pieces. The cull came out of the blue," a source shared at the time, "She was not expecting the chop because her character has been a firm favourite with viewers. She’ll be written out with no option to return."
The insider added to The Sun: "Danielle was teary but was told a number of the cast were being shown the door."
Ricky Champ (Stuart Highway), Dayle Hudson (Peter Beale), Barbara Smith (Dana Monroe) and Kelsey Calladine-Smith (Jada Lennox) are all reportedly set to exit the show in the coming months too as a new showrunner Chris Clenshaw steps in.
"Whenever a new boss comes in, there's always going to be big changes and it's no different with Chris," a source told Digital Spy.
"He's been working hard behind the scenes since January and is really planning to shake things up, which means saying goodbye to some characters. It's nothing personal to any of the cast going, it's simply a creative decision - for big storylines to happen you have to say goodbye to people, that's the nature of soap."
They added: "Chris has some really big stories planned and viewers will see his stuff starting to air over the summer. He's really keen to take the show back to its roots, build up the clans again with some big explosive long-running stories."
