Emmerdale star Samantha Giles has explained her exit from the soap, after Bernice Blackstock's final scenes aired on Thursday (November 28).
Giles' exit was announced in September, and viewers have just seen Bernice leaving for Australia with Dee Dee in order to help care for her ex-husband Charlie, who she learns was in a serious car accident.
The star has been a regular on the show for the past seven years since returning in 2012, and speaking on Friday's This Morning, she said that she was interested in trying other roles and projects.
"I want to play something a bit more gritty," she said. "I want to do some other stuff. There are so many things out there."
Giles added that she was happy that Bernice wasn't killed off.
"I said [to the producers] I don't mind what they did, because I think if you say that you're going, you can't then say, 'Oh, don't kill me, though'," she explained. "So I wouldn't have minded if they had [killed me off].
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"But they wanted to leave it open. So that's really nice that she's not dead."
Emmerdale airs weeknights at 7pm on ITV, with an extra episode at 8pm on Thursdays.
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