Corrie: Sue Cleaver quits Coronation Street after 25 years and will be 'hugely missed'

Sue Cleaver has played Eileen Grimshaw on the ITV soap since 2000, but is now poised to leave Coronation Street in order to pursue new acting projects.

The 61-year-old actress - who will remain on the long-running soap until late spring - told The Sun on Sunday newspaper: "I’ve had 25 privileged years of working on Coronation Street. The door is still firmly open but as I reached my 60th year, I decided it was time to embrace change, look for new adventures and live fearlessly.

Coronation Street producer Kate Brooks has paid a glowing tribute to Sue, acknowledging that "her character will be hugely missed on the Cobbles".

Kate said: "We’re sad to bid farewell to the wonderful Sue Cleaver.

"Over the past 25 years, Eileen Grimshaw has been at the heart of some of the most memorable and iconic Corrie storylines, and her on-screen rivalry with Gail Platt will undoubtedly go down in Corrie' folklore.

“There’s certainly no one quite like Eileen, and her character will be hugely missed on the Cobbles.

"We wish Sue all the very best as she embarks on her next exciting chapter."

Sue took a break from 'Coronation Street' in 2024, when she starred in Sister Act The Musical. And the actress is now keen to explore other opportunities in the coming months and years.

An insider told The Sun on Sunday: "Sue has adored her time on Corrie, and sees the cast and crew as her family, but realised that if she wanted to try new projects then she needed to do it now.

"She spoke to bosses last summer, shortly after her stint on Sister Act, about her decision to explore new roles, which gave writers plenty of time to create a strong exit storyline for her, which viewers will love."

At Christmas, Helen Worth said farewell to the cobbles after 50 years.

In her exit storyline Gail Rodwell (Worth) swapped Weatherfield for a new life in France, after she finally got her happy ending by marrying Jesse Chadwick, played by John Thomson.

Eileen entered the soap to work at the local taxi firm, StreetCars, to provide for her two tearaway teenage children, Jason (Ryan Thomas) and Todd (Bruno Langley).

She soon became friends with her boss Steve McDonald (Simon Gregson) and came into conflict with Gail.

Their feud began following relationship issues between Gail’s daughter Sarah (Tina O’Brien) and Eileen’s son Todd, and culminated in the two mothers fighting on the cobbles.

The pair rolled on the ground, pulled one another’s hair and hurled abuse until they were dragged apart in a big TV moment.

It was the culmination of a storyline in which Todd struggles with coming to terms with his sexuality, has a relationship with nurse Karl Foster, and comes out as gay.

Similar to Gail, Eileen has been unlucky in relationships, and had flings with Dennis Stringer (Charles Dale), Ed Jackson (Chris Walker), Michael Rodwell (Les Dennis) and Jerry Morton (Michael Starke) along with marrying the criminal Pat Phelan (Connor McIntyre).

Cleaver won best soap actress gongs at the TV Choice Awards in 2007 and the British Soap Awards in 2006.

She took part in I’m A Celebrity… Get Me Out Of Here! in 2022, where she opened up about reconciling with her birth mother, and was eliminated third.

Cleaver also said her family is “bizarrely interconnected” to other Coronation Street stars, including Worth who is godmother to one of her half-sisters, and the other half-sister’s husband, John Bowe, appeared on the cobbles as Duggie Ferguson.

In 2024, she released the book A Work In Progress in which she discusses how she still feels she is not past her prime, and she has appeared as a panellist in recent years on ITV chat show Loose Women.