Carol Harrison has said she went from “desirable to desperate” after she was given the boot from EastEnders.
The actress, who played Louise Raymond, mother of Martine McCutcheon’s character Tiffany Mitchell, on the soap from 1998 to 1999, said her work dried up after she left.
She told ITV’s This Morning: “The fact was, I was in my 40s and the role was so powerful, she had this affair with a younger man … it’s that stigma about an older woman, that you are kind of a cougar.
“I suddenly went from desirable to desperate.
“When I came out (of the show), I couldn’t understand it at first. It was very confusing. It was like ‘Where are the parts?’
“There weren’t that many parts for a woman like me at that age. Suddenly they dried up.”
Harrison said it was confusing because she thought she had done a good job, adding: “I thought I did really well, I thought I played her really, really well. If you are rubbish, you get it.
“I felt a real sense of rejection. Acting has always been my first love and suddenly it’s unrequited… I was offered some parts but they were all very similar … the description was ‘mutton dressed up as lamb’.”
She added that she found out she was getting the boot by reading it in the newspapers.
“The new executive producer came on board and I guess when someone else comes in, they want to make their changes.
“A lot of people found out in the newspaper. I thought ‘How terrible’, and then, the next week, there I was.”