EastEnders icon Lacey Turner reveals how huge character death contributed to her exit from Stacey Slater role

Lacey Turner has revealed why she chose to leave EastEnders in her new autobiography Gold Dust.

The actress took a break from her Stacey Slater role, with the character heading off to Brazil with her children to work in brother Sean's (Robert Kazinsky) bar.

"It's the break that Stacey needs," Turner said in an interview with the BBC at the time. "She's been through so much and losing Martin has been so hard for her. Walking past his stall everyday is too much. Brazil seems far, but I guess that's what she needs."

The departure has allowed Turner to explore new projects – including a current stint in the Strictly Come Dancing ballroom alongside professional dancer Vito Coppola.

Now, upon the release of Gold Dust: My Life (So Far) with the Women Who Shaped Me, she's detailed the reasoning behind her Albert Square exit and explains that it stemmed from news that co-star James Bye would be bowing out during the soap opera's 40th anniversary celebrations.

Following an explosion at The Queen Victoria, his alter ego Martin Fowler died from crush syndrome.

In an excerpt from the audiobook of her life story, Turner reveals: “When bosses told me they were going to kill off Martin Fowler in the 40th anniversary episode in 2025, I needed Steve McFadden’s advice about making whatever is on the page work more than ever.

“It’s a decision I found hard to fathom, and to be completely honest, one I’m still not over. I kept on asking ‘why’, because it made no sense to me. Surely there was another way.”

“They’d made their minds up and it was no good," she continues, after added that she'd tried to explore other avenues with the drama's producers.

"He was to be crushed to death after an explosion in the Queen Vic."

Turner added that she only found out about Martin's death in advance because she'd fallen pregnant, and her due date was "scarily close" to the live episode that was planned to mark the milestone. She agreed to return just two weeks after giving birth.

“I promised them I’d be there, even if it was in my maternity dressing gown," she laughs.

"What I couldn’t be sure of was how Stacey would survive in Walford without Martin.

"And I didn’t know how I’d survive there without James. I started to wonder if now might be the right time for me to step away too.

“I was about to have a baby, James was going, and Natalie Cassidy was also leaving.”

She adds: “The more I thought about it, the more I realised I needed some real time out and I loved the idea of taking my foot off the gas and being with my family for a while. So I told them I wanted to go too.”

“As promised I made it back for the live episode just four weeks after giving birth and then stayed on to shoot Stacey’s mental health decline."

But will Stacey ever return? There's certainly the option now that Sean has come back from Brazil.

"I miss Stacey of course I do, but she was tired and she needed a break. And I did as well," Turner comments.

“She’d run out of things to go through. There’s only so much s**t one person can suffer before you think it’s time to stop. I don’t know what the future holds… I hope it’s not the end for Stacey.”

Read more:

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• EastEnders star teases "fire and carnage" when Penny Branning's baby paternity secret is revealed
• EastEnders favourite Balvinder Sopal teases Ash return is "grenade" to the Panesar family unit this autumn
• EastEnders announces hard-hitting Amy Mitchell storyline as BBC soap works with charities

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Authors

Michael Adams is the Soaps Editor at Radio Times, covering all of the hot gossip and spoilers from Weatherfield to Walford, Emmerdale to Hollyoaks and everywhere in-between. He joined the team from Metro, where he spent two years as a Soaps Reporter and previously worked on the sets of both Coronation Street and Emmerdale.