Kellie Bright to leave EastEnders after 13 years as Linda Carter

Kellie Bright will leave EastEnders after 13 years as Linda Carter, ending one of the BBC soap’s most durable modern roles and taking a major fixture out of Albert Square. The BBC called Linda the fan-favourite former Queen Vic landlady who is “hanging up her flamingo dress.”

Linda has been central to EastEnders since 2013, when the Carter family moved into the Queen Vic and Bright joined the cast as the pub’s landlady alongside Mick Carter. That arrival helped turn the Carters into one of the soap’s defining families, giving EastEnders a new power base inside Walford at a time when the Queen Vic remained the show’s most important stage.

Her departure matters because Linda has outlasted the story cycle that introduced her. Bright’s character became one of the best-known modern residents of the Queen Vic, carrying family plots, pub drama and the wider Carter era through more than a decade on screen. Removing Linda now means EastEnders is losing a character closely tied to its 2013 reinvention, not just another long-running name.

The exit also comes after EastEnders had already pushed Linda into fresh material. The soap recently introduced Clive Masters as Linda’s love interest, a move that signalled the character still had new ground to cover before the farewell was set in motion. Jason Durr was cast as Clive, giving Linda a new romance storyline even as the show prepared to write out one of its most recognisable figures.

Bright’s departure is one of the clearest cast changes in the soap’s recent run and leaves EastEnders without a character who was built into the modern identity of the Queen Vic. In a show that still depends on familiar families to keep Walford feeling alive, losing Linda Carter removes a link between the programme’s recent history and its next chapter.