Meet your cover star
EastEnders’ best-known villain, Michelle Collins, 62, chats to Lara Kilner about the joys of marriage, managing the menopause and why she couldn’t be happier being back in Walford
When Michelle Collins left EastEnders in 1998 after playing the iconic blonde villain of the Square, Cindy, her character went to prison for hiring a hitman to kill her husband, Ian (Adam Woodyatt). Viewers later learned that she’d died during childbirth. In real life, the actor’s fortunes – thankfully – fared far better, with her appearing in umpteen TV dramas, films and theatre shows, as well as a stint in rival soap Coronation Street.
What couldn’t have been further from Michelle’s mind was ever returning to Walford with her character ‘dead and buried’, but with a storyline explaining her reappearance after being in a witness protection programme, Cindy has been back for a year and causing chaos. And life on the Square looks no calmer ahead, as Cindy’s big plot line proves leopards really don’t change their spots.
Michelle also has a number of other projects on the go, with no fewer than six films, including playing a possessed teacher in a horror movie, which involved spending four hours a day in makeup. She doesn’t let the grass grow under her feet, that’s for sure.
Michelle, who has a 27-year-old daughter, Maia Rose, has everything going just as swimmingly in her personal life. In 2022, she wed her partner, Mike Davidson, whom she met just before turning 50 and married him just after she turned 60. Who says life doesn’t get better with age?
HER SOAPLAND JOURNEY
It was a big decision to return to EastEnders and I wanted to go back with a good storyline. People love to hate Cindy. She is unapologetic and behaves in a way you shouldn’t really behave, but you sometimes can’t help that when you follow your heart, not your gut and, let’s face it, how many women do that?
Adam Woodyatt said after I’d left, ‘How would you feel about going back?’ I said, ‘Well, it’s never going to happen.’ And then I got a call from my agent, who had spoken to the casting director. I was like, ‘Are you serious?! How are they going to work that one out?’ We had a meeting, they told me the plan and my agent and I looked at each other, like, ‘Wow.’
It was exciting, but it was also nerve-racking. It was a year before I actually rejoined and the hardest thing was being sworn to secrecy. I’m terrible at keeping secrets; I talk too much, and I worry about the public reaction – do people really want Cindy back? Are they interested? And it seems like they are.
You should always say, ‘Never say never,’ as an actor because you never know. The first time round, I was desperate to leave EastEnders to prove I could do other things. I lef
