Iconic EastEnders actress June Brown, best known for her role as Dot Cotton in British BBC One soap, died at the age of 95 on Monday.
Following the shock news of the soap legend's passing, tributes poured in from her former EastEnders cast members, to huge news outlets and fans are honouring the late star's life and acting legacy.
While she played sweet Dot Cotton on Albert Square, actress June was the polar opposite to her on-screen character in real life.
The feisty star was unapologetically herself - she was opinionated and had a nonsense attitude towards life - but there was one aspect of her personal life which left fans rather confused following the news of her death.
Despite her incredibly successful acting career, June never wanted to be in film or television and never saw herself as a star.
As a child, June had dreams of growing up to become an osteopath and often experimented with dissection to fuel her love for medicine.
Following her death, The Times paid tribute to the late EastEnders actress as they quoted her memoir when she once admitted that she loved nothing more as a child than 'gassing rabbits'.
"There was nothing June Brown liked better than putting a rabbit in a biscuit tin, gassing it, and then cutting it up," the tribute from The Times reported.
The actress previously wrote in her autobiography, Before the Year Dot: “Nowadays, people would scream in horror at the thought, but we were not sentimental about field animals. I loved dissection.”
Following the tribute, confused fans of June flocked to Twitter to share their disbelief at the her seemingly brutal childhood hobby.
"Finding out June Brown used to kill rabbits certainly wasn't on my 2022 bingo card," one tweeted.
"As a child, there was nothing June Brown liked better than putting a rabbit in a biscuit tin, gassing it and cutting it up' is a heck of a thing to read in an obituary," another echoed.
However, upon further research, one Twitter user set the record straight as they called out The Times for taking June's previous admission out of context.
The furious social media user wrote: "This tweet, set against the actual quote from June Brown’s autobiography (Before the Year Dot, searchable on Google Books), is a pretty good lesson in how words can be taken out of context."
The passage from June's book actually read: “Biology I’d loved. I’d stay behind when school finished after a double period of biology, my eye glued to a microscope. As I’ve said, I was very good at dissection - one day, a poor rabbit was gassed with carbon monoxide in a large square biscuit tin by Miss George, then ditto a frog.
“You pinned the frog, spread out on a cork board under water, and he was quite delicate and finicky to deal with. Nowadays, people would scream in horror at the thought, but we were not sentimental about field animals.
“I’ll be thought to be very hard, which I’m not, but that was the practical side of our work, tying in with the information and diagrams in our textbooks. If you conduct a post mortem you deal with people’s bodies, which I wouldn’t care for so much.”
June didn’t actually 'gas rabbits' as a child, instead, she took part in a dissection of one in a school biology class.
EastEnders bosses paid a heartbreaking tribute to June on Monday, writing: "We are deeply saddened to announce that our beloved June Brown, OBE, MBE sadly passed away last night. There are not enough words to describe how much June was loved and adored by everyone at EastEnders, her loving warmth, wit and great humour will never be forgotten...
"June created one of the most iconic characters in Dot Cotton, not just in soap but in British television, and having appeared in 2884 episodes, June’s remarkable performances created some of EastEnders finest moments.
"We send all our love and deepest sympathies to June’s family and friends. A very bright light has gone out at EastEnders today - we shall all be raising a sweet sherry in June’s memory. Rest in peace, our dearest June. You will never be forgotten."
June's family also said in a statement: "We are deeply saddened to announce our beloved mother, June, passed away very peacefully at her home in Surrey on Sunday evening, with her family by her side. We would kindly ask that our privacy is respected at this very difficult time."
Playing the Walford legend since 1985, June retired the much-loved character after 35 years in February, as one of British TV’s longest serving actors.
