In her first scenes following the announcement that she is leaving EastEnders, Michelle Ryan's Zoe was confronted by Sharon Watts in explosive scenes that had more than one character enraged

Michelle Ryan may have reportedly quit EastEnders, but Zoe Slater is currently still on the show - and her first scenes since the announcement was made have been explosive.

In Monday's episode, Zoe was confronted by her old love rival Sharon Watts (Letitia Dean). Sharon stormed up to Zoe in the Vic and chucked a drink over her in front of her children, Jasmine and Josh (Indeyarna Donaldson-Holness and Joshua Vaughn).

As the twins protested, Sharon angrily yelled that Zoe was the reason she had to flee the Square, as Zoe had previously lied to her. Back at the end of 2025, Zoe was desperate to find her children and told Sharon that her late husband Dennis Rickman (Nigel Harman) was the father so that she would pay for a private investigator.

Dennis and Sharon's relationship started whilst he was already in a relationship with Zoe, so the lie was believable. But the father was really Anthony Trueman (Nicholas Bailey) and when Zoe admitted that Dennis was not the father, Sharon left Walford broken-hearted.

Sharon's tirade at Zoe ended when Jasmine threatened to chuck a drink on Sharon in revenge. Zoe later tried to apologise to Sharon for having lied to her, but Sharon wasn't interested and made it clear she wanted Zoe to leave her alone.

These are Zoe's first scenes since it was revealed that Michelle Ryan was leaving the soap. It was reported that she had quit after being denied time off from filming. As such, EastEnders is said to be set to kill Zoe off.

A spokesperson said to the Mirror : “We can confirm Zoe Slater will be departing EastEnders later this year. We wish Michelle Ryan all the best for the future. However, we never comment on future storylines as we don’t want to spoil it for the viewers.”

If Zoe is killed off, this won't be the first time that an EastEnders character has died following an actor's decision to leave. Pam St Clement played Pat Butcher until the character died as a result of cancer.

In 2015, St Clement told the Mirror: "It was very, very difficult. I was saying goodbye to a character I'd inhabited for almost 26 years and, while I had chosen to leave EastEnders, I didn't want Pat to die.

"I was adamant there should be a chance for her to return and had been assured by the executive producer she wouldn't be axed. When I felt the time had come to hang up the earrings I took Bryan Kirkwood, the then executive producer, out for dinner and broached the subject of leaving.

"One crucial thing I asked for was that Pat shouldn't be killed off. Bryan's response was unequivocal. He assured me that Pat wouldn't be axed." And yet, she discovered a few months later that Pat was destined to die.

"I was so shocked. Someone changed the goalposts. For the sake of a hard-hitting exit, Pat would be 'brown bread'," she said. "I truly don't know if I could have flatly refused to die – indeed, if I could have made any difference. I went away feeling empty and let down."

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