Coronation Street's Sue Cleaver smiling
Soaps

Coronation Street star Sue Cleaver addresses decision to leave soap as Eileen Grimshaw after 25 years

She felt that now was the right time

25 years after she first arrived on Coronation Street, Eileen Grimshaw star Sue Cleaver has now spoken out on her upcoming soap exit.

Speaking on Loose Women today (Thursday, January 9), the Corrie actress addressed the real reason for her decision to leave.

Coronation Street's Sue Cleaver smiling
Sue is leaving the cobbles (Credit: ITV/ Loose Women)

Coronation Street star Sue Cleaver shares real reason for leaving soap

With Sue’s exit as Eileen airing on screen in the late spring, the actress has revealed why she’s decided that now is the right time to leave the show.

She shared: “I’m now 61 and I feel I’m now at a stage in my life, like most mums we have responsibilities, we have other things we have to consider [and] we’re bringing up our families – and I’ve got to the stage, my son is grown up now, he’s 29, I have no responsibilities left and I want to do something new. I want this decade to be about me.

“I really want to empower other women. Society at this point wants us all to shuffle off, don’t they. Just go away quietly, ‘You’ve had your days.’
“No, this is my decade. I’m more excited about this decade, hopefully you know, as long as I remain well, that this is going to be the most exciting decade for me. I’m really excited.”
Coronation Street's Katy Cavanagh as Julie Carp
Katy is back on the cobbles as Julie (Credit: ITV)

All we know about Eileen Grimshaw’s exit

Whilst the main details about Eileen Grimshaw’s are being kept under wraps, we do know that Eileen’s sister Julie Carp – played by Katy Cavanagh – will be returning as part of this storyline. Julie was last seen on the show 10 years ago.

Teasing her final storyline, Sue hinted: “We started filming my exit storyline, lovely Katy Cavanagh has come back, who plays Julie [Carp] and we’ve literally started filming that.

“It’s going to be emotional, it’s going to be hard. I’ve got a lot of friends there that I will still have a connection to it [the show]. You know, my husband is the lighting guy on it so I don’t feel I’m going too far away from it but, it will be very emotional. I just know in my gut that it is the right thing to do and I’m going with that.”

Read more: Coronation Street spoilers: First look as Abi suffers visions of Seb

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Coronation Street usually airs on Monday, Wednesday and Friday at 8pm on ITV.

Loose Women airs weekdays from 12:30pm on ITV, ITVX, STV and STV Player.

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Tamzin Meyer
Assistant Soap Editor