Emmerdale's Bradley Riches hails "friend for life" as co-star exits soap

Emmerdale's Bradley Riches has called his co-star Olivia Bromley "a friend for life" following her departure from the ITV soap. Bromley's character, Dawn Fletcher, was killed off on Sunday (30 August) following an explosive storyline that also resulted in Jimmy King (played by Nick Miles) dying too.

Taking to Instagram, Riches - who plays Lewis Barton - posted a photo of him and Bromley and captioned it: "So sad to say goodbye to Dawn (Olivia Bromley).

"Although Lewis and Dawn didn’t get to interact much on screen, behind the scenes I gained a friend for life - and for that, I’ll always be so grateful.

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"I’m so incredibly proud of you and everything you’ve achieved. You’re such a beautiful person inside and out, and I feel so lucky to have met you," he continued, before adding: "Love you lots. You’ll be missed more than you know!"

Bromley shared the post on her Instagram Story, along with various other tributes from her fellow costars.

Dawn's death came as a shock to Emmerdale fans, especially as tragedy struck just hours after she had given birth to a baby boy – her first child with her wayward fiancé Joe Tate.

Digital Spy recently caught up with Olivia for an exclusive chat about her shock departure, and she admitted she felt "very emotional" about bidding farewell to the Dales.

"I was excited about the storyline and ready for my own new chapter. But I was surprised about how emotional it was to film, even after I'd known this was coming for a long time!" she said.

Related: Emmerdale's Kim Tate to be framed for Dawn's death in worrying twist

"It was the physicality of it as an actor and saying goodbye to this character that I've lived with for eight years. I didn't think it would be a problem, but suddenly I was very emotional about it!"

While Bromley wanted "to go and do other things" away from the ITV soap, she said it was "the producers' choice to do the storyline of Dawn's death" and so she had to go along with it.

"The story was great and I thought: 'Okay, this is probably a good thing because it's a big, massive exit'. It's not like: 'Oh, go away for a bit and maybe come back'. It was very final, which for an actor is scary," she said.

"But for me on a personal level, I think it was absolutely perfect. I think I would have been too scared to close the door entirely. So to be given this amazing story for Dawn's exit was really exciting to me."

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