John Partridge Has No Regrets Over Leaving EastEnders

John Partridge believes leaving EastEnders was the right decision.

The actor joined the BBC One soap in January 2008 as the openly gay brother of Jane Beale (Laurie Brett) the long suffering wife of Ian Beale (Adam Woodyatt). During Partridge’s five year stint in the show his character of Christian was involved in a high profile gay romance with Muslim neighbour Syed Masood (Marc Elliot). Earlier this year it was announced that both Partridge and Marc Elliot were to leave the soap and they bowed out, on-screen, in November.

In an interview with The Sun, Partridge noted:

“It was time for me to move on. I did feel in my heart it was time to move on and to flex my muscles elsewhere”

Since leaving the soap the actor has appeared in Cinderella in Nottingham during the festive period and is due to appear onstage in musical A Chorus Line before launching his own one-man show in April.

“After doing pantomime, I’m going straight into A Chorus Line at the London Palladium. It’s great to go back into musical theatre. I play Zach — which is the Michael Douglas role — so I’m the only person who doesn’t sing or dance…..I’m so excited about new things to come. What with A Chorus Line, my own show and everything else, leaving EastEnders proved to be the right decision.” – John Partridge in The Sun

The exits of Elliot and Partridge does mean that EastEnders is now without a regular gay character. Something that hasn’t gone un-noticed by Partridge who has called for the soap to introduce some ‘hot new gays’. You can read more about that here >>

EastEnders continues tonight at 7.30pm on BBC One