Coronation Street star leaves soap after 25 years

Sue Cleaver, who plays the popular Coronation Street matriarch Eileen Grimshaw, has announced that she is leaving the soap after 25 years.

In a statement shared on Saturday (4 January), the 61-year-old actor and regular Loose Women panellist announced she is exiting the show to pursue new acting projects this spring.

“I’ve had 25 privileged years of working on Coronation Street,” Cleaver said. “The door is still firmly open but as I reached my 60th year, I decided it was time to embrace change, look for new adventures and live fearlessly.”

Cleaver previously took a break from the soap last year to star as Mother Superior in Sister Act The Musical, and in 2022, paused filming on the soap to appear in I’m A Celebrity…Get me Out of Here!

Kate Brooks, the soap’s new producer, said the team was “sad” to say goodbye to the iconic actor and her character Eileen Grimshaw.

“Over the past 25 years, Eileen Grimshaw has been at the heart of some of the most memorable and iconic Corrie storylines, and her onscreen rivalry with Gail Platt will undoubtedly go down in Corrie folklore.”

“There’s certainly no one quite like Eileen, and her character will be hugely missed on the Cobbles. We wish Sue all the very best as she embarks on her next exciting chapter.”

Cleaver’s character Eileen has been at the centre of some of the soap’s biggest storylines, including her on-screen rivalry with Gail Platt (Helen Worth), her marriage to serial killer Pat Phelan ( Connor McIntyre), and her son becoming a father in his teens with Sarah Louise Platt.

Last year, Cleaver published her first book A Work in Progress, a self-help book aimed at “every middle-aged woman who feels newly invisible, silenced, underestimated or diminished”.

The actor previously spoke about how she was learning to embrace new challenges as she entered into her 60s.

The actor said she has been more empowered at the age of 60 to live her life to the fullest.

“I’ve spent a lifetime feeling that I’m not enough or I don’t belong,” she said of the book. “It’s only now that I’m beginning to find my voice. I’m also aware that there is plenty for me to learn. I’m still a work in progress, but for the first time in my life, I have reached a point where I’m no longer hiding, and that feels good.”

“I’m of that age – and I’m surrounded by a lot of women, we’re all going through the same thing – but I don’t want to just shuffle off,” Cleaver told PA in September.

“I feel like I’ve still got a lot to give, and I want adventures. I’m not going to let fear hold me back, and I’m not going to let society hold me back either – absolutely not. I want to forge my own path, and I encourage all women to do the same.

Cleaver follows in the footsteps of fellow Coronation Street matriarch Gail Platt who departed the show after 50 years on Christmas day.

Worth’s character Gail holds numerous records including being the series’ most married-female, having wed six times, one behind Steve McDonald (played by Simon Gregson). She made her mark in one of the most controversial stories of the day when her 13-year-old daughter Sarah (played by Tina O’Brien) became pregnant in 1999.

Coronation Street airs on ITV1 and is available to watch on ITVX.

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