Sue Cleaver QUITS Coronation Street: Actress, 61, reveals she’s leaving the soap after 25 years to pursue ‘new adventures’ – and shares the exact moment she decided to leave
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Sue Cleaver leaves Coronation Street after 25 years on the cobbles.
The actress, 61, who plays the iconic Eileen Grimshaw is leaving the ITV soap to pursue new acting projects and her exit storylines are already being filmed.
The sun has revealed that the star, who is also a regular panellist on Loose Women, will not be killed off by producers, leaving the door open for a possible return in the future.
While Sue will continue to appear on viewers’ screens until late spring, the star told the publication: ‘I’ve had 25 privileged years on Coronation Street.
‘The door is still open, but when I turned 60, I decided it was time to embrace change, seek new adventures and live fearlessly.”
The star previously took a break from Corrie last year to star in Sister Act The Musical as Mother Superior and headed Down Under to take part in the 2022 series of I’m A Celebrity.
Sue Cleaver has left Coronation Street after 25 years for ‘new adventures’ – but she won’t be killed off the cobbles
The actress, 61, who plays the iconic Eileen Grimshaw, is leaving the ITV soap to pursue new acting projects and her exit storylines are already being filmed (pictured in 2012)
A source told the publication: ‘She spoke to bosses last summer, shortly after her stint on Sister Act, about her decision to explore new roles, which gave writers plenty of time to create a strong exit storyline for her that viewers will love.”
The soap’s new boss Kate Brooks said the team would be sad to see Sue leave as they wished her well for her next chapter.
MailOnline has contacted ITV representatives for comment.
Sue’s character Eileen has had a dramatic time on the soap and is perhaps best known for her iconic on-screen rivalry with Gail Platt and her marriage to serial killer Pat Phelan.
The star previously spoke about how she was learning to do that embraces growing older and admits that since she turned 60, she has felt like the world is now her “oyster.”
In the November issue of Prima, she explained: ‘There are so many people my age I speak to who are depressed about reaching their 60s. You feel like this is the end of the line, that everything is going down from here on out. And I definitely don’t have that feeling.
‘I just feel like the world is really my oyster now, and there’s so much available. There’s so much you can do.’
Meanwhile, Sue shocked fans after showing off her three stone weight loss during an appearance on Lorraine in September.
Sue’s character Eileen has had a dramatic time on the soap and is perhaps best known for her iconic on-screen rivalry with Gail Platt (pictured) and her marriage to serial killer Pat Phelan
Sue previously shocked fans with her incredible three-stone weight loss (pictured L in May 2023 and R in 2006)
In March, Sue discussed her weight loss after taking part in Dry January the year before.
She said, “I lost 18 pounds [in 2022’s I’m A Celebrity Get Me Out Of Here]. I had already lost a stone and a half that year because I had given up drinking. I did Dry January and then I decided to continue.
‘I know it sounds ridiculous at my age, but I never really thought about how many calories I was consuming if I drank a glass of red wine while cooking and then a few more while eating it.
“If you do that four or five nights a week, that’s a lot of calories.”
Fans are amazed by Sue’s stunning transformation and gasped that they “barely recognized her!” during her appearance in ITV’s Lorraine.
However, she was on the show to talk about her new, recently released autobiography A Work In Progress fans were distracted by her appearance.
On X, formerly Twitter, viewers wrote: ‘Sue Cleaver looking amazing.. #lorraine’; ‘What the hell happened to Sue Cleaver? You would hardly recognize her!: ‘Wow, so slim – good for you’.