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Ben Hardy knew he had to get off EastEnders. When he joined the cast of the long-running soap in 2013, playing Ian Beale’s misguided son Peter, he only planned to stick around for a year. But then Peter confessed to indirectly killing his best friend. Then his sister Lucy was murdered. Then he got his girlfriend pregnant. One year turned into two, with Hardy on the cusp of becoming one of the show’s biggest stars. But he felt like he was losing himself.