Lesley Dunlop is the latest cast member expected to imminently leave Emmerdale (Picture: ITV/REX/Shutterstock)
Emmerdale actor Lesley Dunlop, who is married to co-star Chris Chittell, is reportedly exiting the ITV soap after 16 years.
The 68-year-old actor has played Brenda Walker since 2008.
Her character has faced plenty of challenges along the way from her turbulent relationship with boyfriend Eric Pollard (played by husband Chris) to overcoming a brain tumour diagnosis.
But her time on the show looks to be coming to an end as she is expected to leave alongside fellow cast member Roxy Shahidi (who plays Leyla Harding), according to the Mirror.
This rumoured departure has sparked wider fears that more cast members are set to be culled amid a mass shake-up for the show.
‘There have been so many exits recently and the talk is of more. And with people like Lesley and Roxy potentially in the mix, nobody feels safe.
She has been on the show since 2008 (Picture: ITV/REX/Shutterstock)
Her character has recently been dealing with Eric’s Parkinson’s disease diagnosis (Picture: ITV/REX/Shutterstock)
‘The show has grown a lot bigger in recent years but soaps are expensive to make. It’s inevitable saving money means losing people – but it’s a huge shame all the same for those involved, their friends and colleagues,’ an insider told the publication.
Although it is unclear how Brenda will leave the show, fans have already been told that Roxy’s character Leyla will be involved in an intense plotline that results in her demise.
Lesley married Chris in 2016, eight years after the pair first met on the set of the show.
Chris, 76, himself has been on the show since 1986.
In 2012, the actor reminisced about how they got together.
He told the Daily Record: ‘Everyone thinks it’s the younger members of the cast who have all the fun but we more mature ones do, too,’ he told the Daily Record in 2012.
She is married to her co-star Chris, who also plays her partner on the show (Picture: ITV)
Chris said they are ‘very happy’ together (Picture: Mike Marsland/WireImage)
‘It was weird. Somehow we’d never met before and we just kept bumping into each other at work.
‘I can’t even remember if I asked her for a date or she asked me but she is wonderful and we’re very happy.’
Lesley is the latest high-profile name said to be leaving the long-running series.
Last month it was announced that Daisy Campbell, who stars as Amelia Spencer, would be leaving Emmerdale after 13 years.
But the 21-year-old actor admitted to the Mirror that the decision was initially a ‘shock’ and ‘wasn’t my choice’.
She continued: ‘Being in Emmerdale is all I have ever known. I’ve spent the whole of my childhood growing up in the soap and it felt daunting.’
‘Once they explained, I totally got it.
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Source:: Metro
