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EastEnders fans in backlash over Abi and Lauren exit

What does Enders have against sisters, seriously?

If you are an actress who plays a character with a female sibling in EastEnders, we’d suggest you call your agent and start getting the auditions lined up – because they seem to have some serious beef over in Walford with sisters. Especially feisty ones who get into quite a lot of trouble.

A spokesperson for the show confirmed this weekend that Abi and Lauren Branning are to follow Ronnie and Roxy out of the show, in a major storyline at Christmas.

But fans are seriously mad that the two characters – who are involved in huge plots at the moment, see Steven Beale/ pregnancies/ cheating/ drinking/ etc etc – are heading out of the door.

And obviously they’ve been sharing that rage on the ragiest platform of all: Twitter.

One posted: “Jesus Abi and Lauren are leaving! At this rate there will be no characters left and no more eastenders”

Another wrote: “First they kill off Ronnie & Roxy and now Lauren & Abi Branning are being written off over Christmas.”

A third wiped away a tear (possibly), as they said: “My timeline today is so sad, just shows how iconic Lauren and Abi Branning are.”

And they kept coming…

“So sad to hear Lauren (+abi) are leaving #EastEnders :/ really disappointed… eastenders is just getting worse by the day,” said one fan.

And controversially, some people thought it was even harder to take than the loss of the Mitchell sisters.

Read more: EastEnders controversially ditch TWO characters

“Lauren and abi to leave #Eastenders even bigger loss of losing Ronnie and Roxy if you ask me.”

Whoa, calm down. We love them. But Ronnie and Roxy, guys!

Jacqueline Jossa, 24, and Lorna Fitzgerald, 21, who play Lauren and Abi have been on the show for seven and eleven years respectively and Jacqueline especially made it clear that she was sad about leaving with Instagram and Twitter posts dedicated to her on-screen sis.

❤️❤️

A post shared by Jacqueline Osborne (@jacjossa) on

But no matter how sad we are, the news has been confirmed with a statement from EastEnders saying:  “We can confirm that Jacqueline and Lorna will be leaving EastEnders.

“They have both been wonderful to work with and we wish them all the best for the future.”

And controversial boss John Yorke is supposed to have explosive plans for their goodbye storylines (should think so…) with a source telling The Sun that it’ll be “one of the biggest on-screen moments of the year.”

“[John] has form for creating huge plots, so they’re in safe hands over their departure,” the source said.

So what do we reckon? Lauren to find out about Abi being pregnant with her dead ex’s baby (ah, soap) and leave, with her sister heading off after her? Something to do with Lauren’s drinking, which we know will make a return? Or will they start a new life with their mum Tanya, away from Walford?

Read more: Lauren to make a huge mistake as she grieves for Steven

Or something more sinister, since they are from a family that, er, sometimes gets so mad they bury each other in shallow graves?


Nancy Brown
Associate Editor