Yahoo News Hollyoaks star Rita Simons reflects on EastEnders reunion in soap
Hollyoaks star Rita Simons has reflected on an EastEnders reunion with her former on-screen mother in the soap.
Though Simons now plays Marie Fielding in the Channel 4 soap, she is arguably best known for portraying Roxy Mitchell in EastEnders from 2007 to 2017.
As Roxy, her on-screen mother Glenda was played by Glynis Barber – and the pair have reunited in Hollyoaks.
Speaking to Inside Soap, Simons dished on the reunion.
Related: Hollyoaks star Nadine Mulkerrin addresses "strange" real-life couple scenes
"It's lovely working with Glynis again," she said. "We always stayed in touch and we share a dressing room here."
Continuing, she explained how strange it was to not refer to Glynis as her mother on screen; in Hollyoaks, the older actress plays Joel's grandmother, Norma.
"We did a scene together when I first started where we were screaming at each other – it felt really surreal not to call her 'Mum'!" Simons explained.
"Jamie Lomas [aka Warren] was also in EastEnders with me so it's nice to see him too. TV is a small world!"
Related: Hollyoaks' Ro Lomax to face prejudice from Carter in gender identity story
Simons was announced as part of the Hollyoaks cast in 2023, but details about her role as Marie were kept under wraps until last month, with the press release teasing that she would cause "quite a stir".
"Marie’s got a lot of ties here, so I think there’s going to be quite a lot of trouble between quite a few characters, and you will just have to keep watching to see," said Simons in a statement following the announcement.
Hollyoaks streams first online via Channel 4 each weekday at 7.30pm. Episodes then air on E4 the following day, before getting their YouTube premiere a week after that.
Selected omnibus episodes are available via Prime Video.
Read more Hollyoaks spoilers on our dedicated homepage
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