Jessie Wallace got emotional when she found out Michelle Ryan was making an EastEnders comeback
Jessie Wallace admitted she "cried" when she found out her on-screen daughter Michelle Ryan was coming back to EastEnders after 20 years.
Jessie Wallace “cried” when she found out Michelle Ryan was returning to EastEnders.
Rumours about the 41-year-old actress coming back - who reprised her role as Zoe Slater, the daughter of Kat Moon (Jessie), and returned to Walford for the first time in 20 years on Monday's (16.06.25) episode of the BBC soap - began at the end of May, and when Jessie found out it was true, she could not help but let out her emotions.
In a behind-the-scenes video of Michelle's return, which shared on the official 'EastEnders' Instagram page, she said: "So, Michelle is back after 20 years. I've missed her tremendously, I've missed her, working with her, the whole Kat and Zoe thing, you know, going back to, 'You ain't my mother,' 'Yes I am.'
"And when I found out Michelle was coming back, I cried. And then when we met up, I cried because I've missed you."
Jessie - who last worked with Michelle on Albert Square in 2005 - compared her return to a parent being reunited with their child.
She said: "Michelle's gone off and done great things, and I've gone off and done other things, but I always come back because I love it here. I feel like it's my home.
"And now Michelle's back it's like having my daughter back again."
Michelle - whose alter ego left Walford for Ibiza, Spain, in 2005 to distance herself from the murder of Den Watts (Leslie Grantham), which was committed by Chrissie Watts (Tracy-Ann Oberman) - was nervous about whether she could remember her lines.
She explained: "I wasn't sure if I was going to be able to retain all the dialogue, and then after like the first day, I was like, 'This is easy, it just feels comfortable.'"
Monday (16.06.25) night's episode - the first under EastEnders' new executive producer Ben Wadey - revealed Zoe stayed in a flat with her estranged cousin Stacey Slater (Lacey Turner), and it emerged that Zoe had been stealing Stacey's credit card.
Zoe claimed to Stacey that Spanish loansharks were trying to track her down.
She kept up the claim when her stepdad Alfie Moon (Shane Ritchie) arrived at the flat just before Zoe came home after Stacey called him to talk to her.
Michelle also appeared in Tuesday (17.06.25) and Wednesday's (18.06.25) episode of the soap and is due to return on a permanent basis later this summer.
She explained that her return to Albert Square feels like "coming home".
Michelle told the BBC: "It all happened at the right time. I’d already been thinking about a return because I’d met up with Kacey Ainsworth (Little Mo) and Kim Medcalf (Sam Mitchell) and we were reminiscing our fond memories of the show, and I’d also joined social media and saw that there was still a lot of love for the character.
"It just so happened that at the same time, EastEnders had announced a new Exec who was keen to explore the potential of a return as he was such a massive fan of Zoe and the Slaters, so both of our worlds aligned at the right time, and I’m so excited to be back. When Ben pitched me the storylines, and when I read the scripts, I knew it was the right decision.
"It feels like coming home. After doing my first few scenes, it was like I’d never been away."
