EastEnders' Jessie Wallace breaks down in tears over Zoe Slater's return
EastEnders Kat Slater star Jessie Wallace has revealed she was overcome with emotion after discovering that Michelle Ryan was returning to the soap as her on-screen daughter, Zoe Slater, two decades after her dramatic exit from Albert Square.
In a behind-the-scenes video shared by the official EastEnders Instagram page, Jessie admitted she cried when she learned Michelle was reprising the iconic role. She said: "So, Michelle is back after 20 years. I've missed her tremendously, I've missed her, working with her, the whole Kat and Zoe thing, you know, going back to, 'You ain't my mother,' 'Yes I am.'
"And when I found out Michelle was coming back, I cried. And then when we met up, I cried because I've missed you." Michelle, now 41, originally left EastEnders in 2005 when her character Zoe fled to Ibiza to escape the fallout of Dirty Den's murder.
In one of the soap's most memorable twists, it was revealed that Zoe was not Kat's sister, as she had believed, but her daughter. Kat gave birth to her when she was just 13, after being assaulted by her uncle Harry.
Zoe's return on Monday night (June 16) came as a shock to viewers. She unexpectedly reappeared in a flat shared with her estranged cousin Stacey Slater (Lacey Turner), and it wasn't long before her destitution started to come to light when she admitted she had stolen Stacey's credit card and claimed was being hunted by Spanish loan sharks.
Zoe's former stepdad Alfie Moon (Shane Richie) made a surprise appearance at the flat, which led to a shock reunion as he came face to face with Zoe for the first time in years.
Wallace, who last starred alongside Ryan in 2005, said having Michelle back on set was like reuniting with family. "Michelle's gone off and done great things, and I've gone off and done other things, but I always come back because I love it here. I feel like it's my home. And now Michelle's back it's like having my daughter back again," she gushed.
For Ryan, the return also came with some nerves. "I wasn't sure if I was going to be able to retain all the dialogue, and then after like the first day, I was like, 'This is easy, it just feels comfortable,'" she explained.
In a conversation with the BBC, Michelle opened up about how the timing of her comeback felt right. She said: "It all happened at the right time. I'd already been thinking about a return because I'd met up with Kacey Ainsworth (Little Mo) and Kim Medcalf (Sam Mitchell) and we were reminiscing our fond memories of the show, and I'd also joined social media and saw that there was still a lot of love for the character.
"It just so happened that at the same time, EastEnders had announced a new Exec who was keen to explore the potential of a return as he was such a massive fan of Zoe and the Slaters, so both of our worlds aligned at the right time, and I'm so excited to be back.
"When Ben pitched me the storylines, and when I read the scripts, I knew it was the right decision. It feels like coming home. After doing my first few scenes, it was like I'd never been away."
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