EastEnders actress Lacey Turner is set to take a break from the BBC One drama series following her pregnancy announcement.
The 30-year-old TV star, who plays Stacey Fowler in the hit soap, revealed she is pregnant with her first child with husband Matt Kay.
She is due to give birth mid-July and will depart the series beforehand to go on maternity leave.
“I can’t wait to nurture our baby,” she told OK Magazine. “We’ve dreamed of having a family for so long.”
“When you’ve lost babies all you care about is the heartbeat – we’ve had about 12 scans,” she continued.
In the interview, Lacey spoke candidly about suffering two miscarriages prior to her current pregnancy.
Admitting she felt at fault for losing her babies, she added: “I blamed myself, thinking that I’d done something wrong.
“I’d think, ‘Why me? What did I do?’ But, of course, I hadn’t done anything wrong – it’s all down to chromosomes and luck, really.”
She went on to say: “Speaking to other people about it helped me. Women shouldn’t feel ashamed to talk about it as it happens to so many women.”
The soap star mentioned how her co-star Natalie Cassidy, who plays the role of Sonya Fowler, guessed she was pregnant before she announced the good news.
When she went to tell Natalie, 35, about her pregnancy the actress stopped her and said she already knew she was expecting because her “face was grey”.
With Lacey set to give birth this summer, her character Stacey is likely to depart Albert Square soon.
Stacey’s exit plot has been widely discussed among EastEnders fans, with many taking to social media to share their theories.
On Twitter, one person said: “I wonder how they are going to write Stacey out seeing as Lacey Turner has announced her pregnancy? In normal life people wait till three months so I wonder if the writers will tie it into Jean somehow?”
Another person tweeted: “Oooh Lacey Turner is expecting her first baby! That means she will be leaving EE temporarily. I wonder what the storyline will be for Stacey’s exit.”
A third commentator wrote: “Lacey Turner is pregnant and I’m so over the moon for her but that means she has to leave Eastenders. I’m honestly gutted.”
Lacey, an award-winning actress, first joined EastEnders in 2004 and has dealt with a string of hard hitting storylines.
Her character famously had an affair with Max Branning (Jake Wood) while she was in a relationship with his son Bradley (Charlie Clements).
She has also tackled abortion, drug abuse, mental illness and rape.
EastEnders continues tonight on BBC One at 7.30pm.