Samantha Giles has admitted the "door is closed for now" after her character left \'Emmerdale\'.
The 48-year-old actress - who has played Bernice Blackstock since 1998 on the ITV soap - has departed after her exit aired on last night\'s (28.11.19) episode and while she refused to confirm her alter ego is gone for good, she admitted a return hasn\'t been discussed.
Talking on ITV\'s \'This Morning\' on Friday\'s (30.11.19) show, Samantha confessed: "So many times I\'ve said, \'I wouldn\'t do that\' and then you end up doing them, so never say never, but for now, the doors closed."
Samantha has said goodbye to the soap opera a number of times before - she left in 2002 and reappeared in 2004, before departing again until 2012 - but now she is ready to try something new.
She explained: "I just felt it was the right time. I\'ve been thinking about it for a couple of years and, like a lot of actors, I\'ve got itchy feet and I just thought, \'I need a change, I want to play something a bit more gritty, I want to do some other stuff.\' There\'s so many other things out there, so hopefully I will."
However, the Bernice\'s exit - the character has left for Australia - means writers have left the door open for a potential comeback.
When asked if she had any say in her exit plot, Samantha added: "No, I said I don\'t mind what they did because if you saying you\'re going, you can\'t then say, \'Don\'t kill me though.\' So I wouldn\'t of minded if they\'d done that but they wanted to leave it open, so that\'s really nice that she\'s not dead."
