{"id":147923,"date":"2025-05-31T22:45:11","date_gmt":"2025-05-31T22:45:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/147923\/"},"modified":"2025-05-31T22:45:11","modified_gmt":"2025-05-31T22:45:11","slug":"eastenders-legend-set-to-return-20-years-after-leaving-albert-square","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/147923\/","title":{"rendered":"EastEnders legend set to return 20 years after leaving Albert Square"},"content":{"rendered":"

EASTENDERS legend Michelle Ryan is set to return as Zoe Slater 20 years after she left Albert Square.<\/strong><\/p>\n

The shock return will see the actress, 41,<\/a> back in Walford this year \u2014 delighting fans who had hoped to see her in the soap\u2019s 40th anniversary special in February.<\/p>\n

\"Michelle<\/a><\/p>\n

2<\/p>\n

Michelle Ryan is set to return as Zoe Slater 20 years after she left Albert SquareCredit: BBC\"Kat<\/a><\/p>\n

2<\/p>\n

Young Zoe fell out with protective Kat, played by Jessie Wallace, storming offCredit: BBC<\/p>\n

A source said: \u201cBosses have repeatedly reached out to Michelle over the years, but the timing has never been quite right.<\/p>\n

\u201cPeople are still talking about her character, so it\u2019s a real coup to bring her back.<\/p>\n

\u201cShe feels like now is the perfect moment \u2014 and there was an exciting script on the table.\u201d<\/p>\n

Michelle<\/a> starred on the soap from 2000 to 2005, before moving to Hollywood<\/a> after landing the lead role in a series called Bionic Woman.<\/p>\n

The Slater sisters<\/a> took Albert Square<\/a> by storm when they arrived.<\/p>\n

Young Zoe fell out with protective Kat, played by Jessie Wallace<\/a>, storming off with the words: \u201cYou can\u2019t tell me what to do.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou ain\u2019t my mother.\u201d<\/p>\n

Kat famously screamed back: \u201cYes I am!\u201d<\/p>\n

It became one of the most quoted lines in soap history.<\/p>\n

The plot twist revealed Zoe \u2014 who was brought up believing Kat was her sister \u2014 found out she was actually her mum.<\/p>\n

Discussing her decision to leave at the time, Michelle<\/a> said: \u201cI\u2019ve always taken chances. I think that\u2019s how you progress.\u201d<\/p>\n

EastEnders legend Michelle Ryan reveals devastating family tragedy – after \u2018having a feeling\u2019 it would happen day before<\/p>\n

Since then Michelle<\/a> has appeared in several films, including 4.3.2.1. and Cockneys vs Zombies.<\/p>\n

She has also had guest roles in BBC<\/a> shows Doctor Who<\/a> and Merlin.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"EASTENDERS legend Michelle Ryan is set to return as Zoe Slater 20 years after she left Albert Square.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":147924,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[192,193,428,429,77,560,427,430,118,1890,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-147923","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-entertainment","8":"tag-bbc","9":"tag-bbc-one","10":"tag-eastenders","11":"tag-eastenders-spoilers","12":"tag-entertainment","13":"tag-exclusives","14":"tag-section-tvsoaps","15":"tag-soap-stars","16":"tag-the-sun-newspaper","17":"tag-the-sun-on-sunday","18":"tag-uk","19":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/114604876376688735","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/147923","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=147923"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/147923\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/147924"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=147923"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=147923"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=147923"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}