Adam Woodyatt says EastEnders chiefs should have chosen other directions for his character Ian Beale to go, and not turned him into a "sociopath".
The actor, 53, quit the BBC soap last year after playing the businessman since the show's first episode in February 1985.
Adam believes there was nowhere else for Ian to go because he had returned to his "very unpopular" ways after his split from long-term love Jane Beale (Laurie Brett).
He said: "The character evolved. If you think back in the 80s, he was a spotty, teenage kid. He was getting bullied at school, his dad wanted him to do boxing."
The actor continued: "It's been a very, very long journey. But don't get me wrong, I don't always think that some of the changes were right.
"Maybe they should've chosen other directions to go but they weren't my decisions. They were stuff the bosses chose.
"Did it make Ian unpopular? Yeah, at times. He was quite forthright and quite rude to everyone, even people he loved.
"He claimed to be a great father but actually he wasn't. He was an absolute narcissist. Some would say a sociopath. But he was very misunderstood. Mostly, his heart was in the right place. He just got things wrong."
Adam told the White Wine Question Time podcast that Ian and Jane were a good pairing, however "once that was broken
up it was like Ian was trying to go back to being Ian of the 1990s.
"It made him very unpopular because all the stuff he'd learnt over the years he forgot and reverted to a previous version of him. Which is why the storyline ended up where it was, because there was nowhere else to go."
Ian was last seen heading for the Tube after pal Sharon Watts (Letitia Dean) tried to poison him on finding he was to blame for her son Denny's death.
But Adam isn't expecting to return to Walford any time soon and has no contact with show bosses. He said: "I'm quite happy doing what I’m doing. I haven't got a clue what’s going to happen."
Adam and wife Beverley split in 2020 after 22 years of marriage.
After leaving EastEnders Adam went on to star in play Looking Good Dead, and lived in a motor-home as it toured the UK. He now lives in it permanently and said: "It suits my life."
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Adam – who has also worked on his chef friends' food stalls – joked that playing Ian for so long made him "slightly schizophrenic".
He told Kate Thornton on the podcast: "It's been a massive part of making me who I am. We look and sound alike, but we behave completely differently. I would hope so, because he’s not the best."
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