Roxy Mitchell is set to make a shock return to EastEnders - despite the character being killed off.
In a surprise return to the BBC soap, actress Rita Simons - who played Roxy for 10 years – is set to reprise her role six years after her tragic exit.
Fans watched in horror as Roxy and sister Ronnie, played by Samantha Womack, drowned on New Year’s Day 2017.
Ronnie jumped into a swimming pool in her wedding dress to save Roxy, who had fallen in after getting drunk at the wedding.
But both sisters died when the weight of Ronnie’s dress pulled her under the water too.
As Rita gets ready to reappear as Roxy, EastEnders fans have called for Ronnie to be brought back too.
Here we look at what actress Samantha Womack has been up to since leaving the show.
Musical theatre career
Before her starring turn in EastEnders, Samantha (then called Samantha Janus) was a singer, who even represented the UK in the Eurovision song contest in 1991.
Her song ‘A Message To Your Heart’ was her first and only single and reached number 30 in the UK charts.
Her breakout acting role came as Mandy Wilkins in comedy show Game On in the mid-Nineties.
She also starred in TV shows Pie in the Sky and Babes in the Wood until landing the role of Ronnie Mitchell in EastEnders in 2007.
Samantha was in the show as long as Rita, who played Ronnie, following their tragic exits in 2017.
Since then she has gone back to her singing roots and forged a successful career in musical theatre.
Her roles include playing the lead in classic Rogers and Hammerstein musical, South Pacific.
She also toured the UK and Ireland playing Morticia Addams in The Addams Family musical-comedy show.
Most recently Samantha played the White Witch in the West End production of The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, which she called the “best job ever”.
Cancer diagnosis
Last year, Samantha went public with the news she had been diagnosed with breast cancer.
But following treatment, the now 50-year-old received the happy news she is cancer free five months later.
She revealed she hadn’t had any symptoms and the cancer was only discovered during a random health check when doctors found a "little shadow".
Speaking to This Morning, Samantha said: "I was lucky, it was less than two centimetres. I had a lumpectomy, which is just a piece of tissue removed and five lymph nodes.
"The mad thing about cancer when you have it, is you understand there are so many different roads, different diagnoses. It is a terrifying world.
"It's terrifying at the beginning but if there was ever a time to have it, there are so many new treatments now that are changing the face of cancer, it's amazing."
New romance
Samantha has been married twice – first to Italian Junfan Mantovani in 1997. But the relationship broke down a year later.
Her second husband was actor Mark Womack, who she starred with in Merseyside police drama Liverpool 1.
The couple married in 2009 and went on to have two children together, Benjamin, now 22, and Lily -Rose, now 18.
In 2018, Samantha and Mark quietly split although they carried on living together in their Bedfordshire farmhouse for a while.
Now divorced, Samantha has found love again with younger man Oliver ‘Oli’ Farnworth.
The couple went public with their relationship in 2021 and fans will recognise actor Oli, 40, from roles in Hollyoaks, Coronation Street and Mr Selfridge.
His character Andy Carver was killed off by Corrie serial killer Pat Phelan.
Famous best pals
Samantha is best friends with Rita Simons, who played her on-screen sister for 10 years.
But Rita isn’t the only famous face that Samantha counts as a bestie.
She went to school with Appleton sisters Nicole and Natalie, who went on to form 90s girl band All Saints.
The sisters are still her good pals to this day and have been seen popping up on her social media, alongside presenter Nick Grimshaw.
New life in Spain
From a look at her Instagram, it appears Samantha and Oli have bought a house in the Valencian mountains.
In a post in February 2023, she shared a pic of her and Oil with a packed van and crew of removal men.
She captioned the post: “The truck is PACKED! Valencia mountains here we come...
“Home 2 Home Spain. Thank you sooooo much. You were incredible. Love you Oli, you are my hero and the BEST packer EVER!!!!”
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