Coronation Street star leaves soap after 25 years
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‘Loose Women’ panellist is exiting soap to embrace ‘new adventures’. 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.
![[Sue Cleaver’s first appearance as Eileen Grimshaw in May 2000]](https://static.independent.co.uk/2025/01/05/09/newFile-2.jpg)
“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!.
![[Sue Cleaver pictured in 2019]](https://static.independent.co.uk/2025/01/05/09/newFile-3.jpg)
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.”.
![[Coronation Street’s Eileen Grimshaw and Gail Platt during one of their many argument scenes]](https://static.independent.co.uk/2025/01/05/09/Screenshot-2025-01-05-at-09.07.47.jpg)
“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.
