Michelle Ryan is leaving EastEnders again. A BBC spokesperson confirmed that her character, Zoe Slater, will depart the soap later in 2026, more than a year after Zoe returned to Walford.
more
Ryan first played Zoe between 2000 and 2005. She came back two decades later for a reunion with her estranged mother, Kat Moon, played by Jessie Wallace. Asked how the exit unfolds, the spokesperson added only that the BBC does not discuss upcoming storylines.
Where Zoe’s story stands
The departure follows months of Zoe fighting to clear her name. Digital Spy reported in February that Zoe stood accused of killing Anthony Trueman, a death her daughter Jasmine caused to protect her. Jasmine then fled Walford and left Zoe to face the charge alone. Whether that plot resolves before Zoe leaves is not clear from what either outlet has reported.
Digital Spy has also reported, without official confirmation, that Zoe’s son has already been cast for a separate storyline, one that draws in Jasmine’s boyfriend Oscar. That would keep Zoe’s family in the plot even once Ryan herself is gone.
The new arrival
The arrival is a new character named Meghan, part of the Hawkins family who arrived in Walford earlier this year. She is the daughter of Gemma Hawkins (Patricia Potter) and Ned Hawkins (Jamie Bamber). A BBC Studios casting breakdown describes her as “confident, gorgeous and ready to cause chaos”. It says she will take a senior job behind one of Walford’s bars. That points towards the Queen Vic, or the family’s own venue, Harry’s Barn.
Why the name got noticed
The casting call went out the same month the real Duchess of Sussex, Meghan Markle, was reported to be returning to acting in the UK. The coincidence produced online jokes that she might turn up in Walford herself. Variety reported that the character had already been mentioned on screen since 17 April. That was three days before news broke that Markle and Prince Harry would return to the UK. Producers had been developing her for months.
It would not be the soap’s first brush with the actual royal family. King Charles and Queen Camilla made a cameo appearance during a Platinum Jubilee street party in 2022, and Charles’s mother, Queen Elizabeth II, visited the set in 2001 without appearing on screen.
Executive producer Ben Wadey said Meghan already has a storyline running “off screen”, timed for “an exciting, probably post-Christmas arrival”. Even the rest of the cast do not yet know the details, he said.
