Yet another EastEnders favourite is set to leave the Square shortly for pastures new and by the sounds of it, she will go out with quite a bang too.

Actress Samantha Womack will be hanging up her boots as Ronnie Mitchell after almost a decade in the role. The 43-year-old joined the soap back in 2007, although she left previously back in 2011 after a controversial cot-death storyline, and returned again in 2013.

An EastEnders spokesman said: "We can confirm that Samantha Womack will be leaving EastEnders. Samantha has created an iconic character in Ronnie Mitchell, having superbly played out many of EastEnders' biggest moments.

"However, Samantha was recently offered a big storyline which she happily accepted that leads to Ronnie departing Walford. We wish Samantha all the best for the future."

A soap insider also said; "It was felt that with everything Ronnie has been through over the past nine years it is now time to rest the character.

"The writers are working on an extremely exciting story for Ronnie and when Sean presented the idea to Sam she jumped at the opportunity to do it.

"Sam already has a few projects lined up so she won't be off screen for long."

There's no word yet on whether the character will be killed off or not, but sure even that's not enough to keep them away in EastEnders.

Samantha also tweeted out her thanks to her fans;