EastEnders’ Letitia Dean made a head-turning return to Albert Square on Wednesday night, with viewers stunned by her transformation.
The actress, 54, who has starred on and off on the soap since the very first episode aired in 1985, displayed her impressive weight loss as she stepped back into Sharon Watt’s shoes.
Commenting on her glamorous new look, a confident Sharon, who boasted a bronzed tan and sleek poker straight blow-dry, said in the episode: ‘I’ve been pampered, polished and plucked’.
And fans of the show soon took to Twitter to comment on the character’s transformation, which they said had “knocked years off” her.
Letitia has spoken openly about her yo-yoing weight over the years and back in 2020 revealed how she had been targeted by cruel trolls.
“I had quite a lot of horrible things said about me. ‘She’s too fat, the other actors complain they can’t fit on the same set with her’, she said on spin-off show Secrets from the Square.
The actress was one of the originals on the show when it first began and was only aged 17 at the time.
Letitia previously spoke about how she was faced with constant criticism over her body image- so much so it damaged her self-confidence and contributed to her getting a breast reduction when she was a teenager.
While there were also medical reasons she chose to go under the knife, Letitia admitted vile remarks contributed to her decision.
“Backache had a lot to do with that decision too” she told Hello! magazine in October 2001. “But I was a lot less secure about myself and there was a lot of focus on how I looked.”
“Occasionally, the attention on my appearance still bothers me – it bothers all women, doesn’t it? – but I have those things in perspective nowadays.”
After reprising her role as Sharon from 2001-2006, Letitia took a break from the soap and starred in Strictly Come Dancing a year later, with the show helping her get in shape.
Placing fourth in the competition with dancer partner Darren Bennett, the BBC favourite said it was the catalyst for her to overhaul her lifestyle.
She told Closer : “It started with Strictly Come Dancing because I felt great by the end of the show and the live tour.
“But the main reason I wanted to do something about my figure was that I was so sick of extreme dieting and my weight yo-yoing.
“I just woke up one morning, and I’d had enough. For years and years – as long as I can remember – my weight had yo-yoed up and down. I’d go on fad diets like Atkins or I’d only eat eggs.”
Letitia said while she would be able to ‘lose a stone in a couple of weeks’ on the extreme diets, it wouldn’t be long until she would ‘slip back into my old ways and put it all on again’.
But it was when she starred in the stage show High School Musical in 2008 that the actress dropped a staggering two stone- going from 10st 4lbs to 8st 3lbs and dropping four dress sizes.
Letitia told how she lost weight the “good old fashioned way” by upping her exercise and making healthier meal choices.
“I went from a size 14 to size 10 and I’ve never looked back. I started going to the gym for the first time last year and now I’ve grown to love it – running and boxercise are now my favourite things,” she told Closer at the time.
“I lost weight the good old-fashioned way, through dancing and exercise – I didn’t starve myself or resort to some crazy fad diet.”
And Sharon certainly made her mark on Albert Square as she returned to the show on Wednesday.
Fans rushed to Twitter to congratulate her and praise her on her new look.
