Lacey Turner quit EastEnders after bosses refused to reverse axe decision

Lacey has revealed what led to her EastEnders exit (Picture: Ken McKay/ITV/Shutterstock) We all miss Martin and Stacey on EastEnders, right? As it turns out, so does EastEnders legend, Lacey Turner, who was absolutely incensed over the decision to axe James Bye as part of the BBC soap’s 40th anniversary episodes back in 2025. With the release of her autobiography, Gold Dust, released last week, comes more insight into Lacey’s thoughts and feelings around the controversial axing, and she’s not backwards in coming forward about how she felt! ‘It’s a decision I found hard to fathom, and to be completely honest, one I’m still not over,’ she admits. ‘I kept on asking ‘why’ – because it made no sense to me, surely there was another way?’ Lacey even approached show bosses, armed with several ideas as to how Martin could survive, but her attempts were futile: ‘They’d made their minds up and it was no good – he was to be crushed to death after an explosion in the Queen Vic.’ Martin was crushed in the Vic explosion… (Picture: BBC) …dying after confessing his undying love for Stacey (Picture: BBC) Martin was trapped and crushed by a fallen roof beam inside The Queen Vic pub during an explosion, where he and Stacey confessed their love for each other, and he ultimately proposed to her, before succumbing to crush syndrome when paramedics removed the beam, dying in Stacey’s arms. James’ exit lead Lacey to a major decision: ‘What I couldn’t be sure of was how Stacey would survive in Walford without Martin, and I didn’t know how I’d survive there without James,’ she admitted. ‘I started to wonder if now might be the right time for me to step away too, I was about to have a baby, James was going, and Natalie Cassidy was also leaving. Ask Metro Use AI to go deeper into the stories you care about – powered by Metro and trusted publications. ‘The more I thought about it, the more I realised I needed some real time out and I loved the idea of taking my foot off the gas and being with my family for a while, so I told them I wanted to go too.’ Her real-life pregnancy left bosses ‘turning green’, with her due date coming ‘scarily close’ to the planned live episode that would see Martin perish. Lacey was heartbroken by James’ axing (Picture: BBC/Jack Barnes/Kieron McCarron) ‘I promised them I’d be there, even if it was in my maternity dressing gown,’ something she followed through with, returning just four weeks after giving birth to take part in the live episode. ‘As promised I made it back for the live episode just four weeks after giving birth and then stayed on to shoot Stacey’s mental health decline,’ she said. Speaking on her ultimate exit, Lacey reflected: ‘My final scenes aired in October 2025. ‘I miss Stacey of course I do, but she was tired and she needed a break, and I did as well. ‘She’d run out of things to go through. There’s only so much s*** one person can suffer before you think it’s time to stop. ‘I don’t know what the future holds… I hope it’s not the end for Stacey.’ The story of her exit from the soap isn’t the only behind-the-scenes tale from her time in Walford; Lacey’s also detailed a supernatural encounter and a serious telling off from bosses, something she shared with Heat magazine before the book’s official release. Detailing an encounter with the cheeky spirit of a Walford legend, Lacey said: ‘One day, after Wendy had passed away, I was standing by the back door debating whether to have a cigarette break when suddenly I felt a great big whack on my bum, I turned and laughed, thinking it was a runner, but there wasn’t a soul there. ‘It was only Barbara [Windsor] in that day, but she was down the other end, I was standing in the studio where the Fowlers would film, and I’m convinced it was Wendy telling me to go for a cigarette like she used to.’ On her roasting from the higher ups after her and on-screen bestie Louisa Lytton had been ‘really mischievous’, she said: ‘On one particular day of filming, we’d had enough, we were so exhausted that we ended up with the giggles and couldn’t stop. ‘We were sent to the production manager’s office for wasting time, only when we got there, during the very serious telling off, Louisa and I kept poking each other in the leg because behind the production manager on the wall was a picture of the two of us dressed up as Peggy and Pat from a Heat photoshoot!’ ‘I don’t know how we held it together, we were crying with laughter as soon as we left the room,’ Deals of the Day This Hoover vacuum is a game-changer for pet owners and muddy homes The wellbeing brand behind everyone's favourite candles has launched its biggest sale yet See London's Christmas lights from an open-top double-decker bus this winter My skin always suffers when the heating goes on but this serum changed that The skincare formula that finally took the guesswork out of my routine Arrow MORE: EastEnders’ Charlie Brooks in such agony she ‘wanted to chop own leg off’ Arrow MORE: Beloved Emmerdale star reveals he was rushed to hospital after heart attack Arrow MORE: Where you’ve seen EastEnders’ Jess before – including in rival soap The Soaps Newsletter – Daily All the latest soaps spoilers and gossip, in your inbox every morning.