As EastEnders favourite Roxy Mitchell, she became one of the best-loved characters in soaps.
But Rita Simons says she’s most proud of her other contribution to the world – her twins Maiya and Jaimee.
And with good reason. Aged just 16, Maiya is already following in her mum’s acting footsteps and starring in BBC kids drama Silverpoint, which was nominated for two BAFTAs last year.
Jaimee, meanwhile, is studying astrophysics and is so brainy that Rita, 46, jokes she’s “beginning to wonder if she’s mine”.
Rita was in the BBC soap alongside Barbara Windsor and Larry Lamb and says she learned her craft from them.
She explains: “I give Maiya lots of advice. She used to come and wait in my dressing room at EastEnders so she could see me on the monitors. But with Jaimee, she tells me some of the questions in her homework and I’m like, what are you talking about? She’s the opposite to me, I was even thrown out of drama for being disruptive!
“Yet Jaimee, I don’t have to ask her to do her homework, she’s already done it before I can even blink. She’s insanely smart and driven and disciplined.”
Rita has a theory about why her twins turned out so differently.
She says: “There’s quite a mix of gene pool in my family. Part of my family is creative and part is super studious. My mum and brother are both solicitors and so was my grandpa, and Theo’s brother is a bid analyst and very maths orientated.”
But which of her two daughters with hairdresser ex-husband Theo Silveston does she worry about the most? “Oh, the actress, all day long,” she laughs.
“I’m constantly asking her if she really wants to do it. I’ve told her it’s going to be difficult, that she’ll be 46 and still having to go for auditions.
“But she loves it and she’s amazing at it. She’s deaf but fearless, she doesn’t let her disability define her.
“Season 2 of Silverpoint is coming out and we’re hoping for a season three, so she’s doing brilliantly.
“I just want her to bear in mind that it’s not an easy profession and there are always a lot of knock-backs.”
If anyone knows the ups and downs of being an actor, it’s Rita. After 10 years playing Roxy, and winning a National Television Award for most popular newcomer, she was unexpectedly written out of the soap in 2017 when she and sister Ronnie, who was played
by Samantha Womack, drowned in a swimming pool.
Fans were devastated by the plot twist, but later that year Rita joined the UK tour of Legally Blonde: The Musical and has she since starred in the West End musicals Everybody’s Talking About Jamie and Hairspray.
She was also an I’m a Celebrity campmate in 2018 and appeared on Celebrity MasterChef in 2021.
When asked if she thinks EastEnders was a help or a hindrance to her career, she replies: “Oh, it was a help a million times over, because I learned my craft on that set. It was my first big TV job, and I don’t think you can learn in drama school what you learn on that set.
“I had Barbara Windsor showing me the ropes, Larry Lamb, Steve McFadden, people who are so good at what they do.
“Of course you’re going to get typecast when you’ve done 10 years on a soap but I would take that negative because it’s worth it for everything I was taught.
“And of course I wouldn’t have got the theatre jobs I have if it hadn’t been for EastEnders, so I’m eternally grateful.”
Rita’s back on our screens again in the BBC show Pilgrimage, joining a group of celebrities including Hi-De-Hi! actress Sue Pollard, Boyzone’s Shane Lynch and reality TV star Vicky Pattison on a trek through Portugal to the Catholic shrine of Fatima.
The journey is supposed to be one of spiritual awakening, but Rita, who describes herself as a “bad Jew”, says her most unforgettable moment of the trip was something altogether different.
She says: “One morning I went into to the bathroom to brush my teeth, and Sue was there naked blow-drying her hair so I had to climb underneath her. And I was brushing my teeth thinking, Sue Pollard is naked behind me, blow- drying her hair, like, what alternative universe am I in?
“But I love Sue to death, she’s amazing, 100 miles an hour all the time. I didn’t once see her get down or angry or disappointed, or say anything bad behind anyone’s back, she has a heart of gold. I only wish to be like Sue.”
She says she also bonded with blind Paralympian skier Millie Knight, because of daughter Maiya, who was born profoundly deaf in her right ear and with limited hearing in her left.
She says: “Milly is the most incredible young woman, I fell in love with her and I felt an affinity with her too, which I’m sure comes from being Maiya’s mum.
“My instinct is always to make sure Maiya can hear, and it was the same with Milly, I was constantly assessing what she could see.” The week-long journey for the fifth series of Pilgrimage, filmed in October, came after a couple of fraught years for Rita, who has spoken of having depression and insomnia following her stressful break-up with Theo after 14 years of marriage.
She admitted throwing herself into work as a distraction before things came to a head and she suffered a nervous breakdown while starring in play The House On Cold Hill in 2019.
But she says getting together with boyfriend Ben Harlow, who she met while touring with Legally Blonde, helped bring her back from the brink.
“I’m in a great place now,” she says. “It’s just so nice because you’ve got this stable base at home, which means even if I go out to a job that’s really tough, I come back and I’m rooted in stability.
“That was the difference doing Pilgrimage, because even in the tough bits I was happy, I had nothing to worry about other than the job at hand. Ben being part of that has been massive because it’s just very grounding.”
Ben left the industry to work in a retirement home for actors, but is now embarking on a new venture.
Rita says: “It was a really gorgeous place but utterly exhausting for him. He’s now in the process of setting up a street food stall. We don’t know which food it will be but it will be good because he’s an amazing cook.”
And Rita says she’s also learned to say no to work for her own health, too.
“When I left EastEnders I was away for so much of the year, but now I just want to come home and be with the kids,” she says. “I see my daughter much more now and I’m much more selective about which jobs I take.
“I did panto in Crawley this year, which is quite a drive from where I live.
“I would normally have stayed there, but this time I came home every night. I’ve also turned down a few theatre gigs because I don’t want to go on tour.
“I know that’s a risk but what I’ve most learned about the last few years is being with my family is so important.”
* Pilgrimage is on Friday at 9pm on BBC2 and BBC iPlayer.
