Coronation Street’s door is “firmly open” for Sue Cleaver, who is appearing on Celebrity Catchphrase tonight (May 4), if she ever wants to return. But for now, after 25 years, it’s ‘So long, Eileen’.

She has already shot her last scenes. This means we can expect her last appearance on the show within the next few weeks.

Her decision to leave after a quarter of a century was informed, at least in part, by a stint she spent in emergency care back in 2023.

How will Eileen depart the cobbles? That remains to be seen, but there are theories regarding Sue Cleaver’s exit from Coronation Street.

Cleaver has played Eileen on Corrie for a quarter of a century (Credit: Coronation Street/YouTube)
Sepsis diagnosis in 2019

Sue had previously revealed that she suffers with IBS, and a flare-up led to her being hospitalised.

Speaking on This Morning in 2019, she explained: “I didn’t really take it seriously. I suffer with IBS and I thought I was having a flare-up.”

After leaving the set early, she returned the next day only for her symptoms to get worse. “And then I came back in the next morning at 7:30am and was shooting all day. It was the hottest day of the year and I was on set with a hot water bottle, shaking. And Melanie Hill said: ‘Sue, look at your feet!’ And my feet were just blue and purple and I had goosebumps on my arms…

“I went home at lunchtime, I got into bed. I had socks on, leggings on and thinking, not only have I got really bad IBS, but I’ve caught the flu now.” However, it was actually a severe kidney infection which had caused sepsis.

Coronation Street star Sue Cleaver had a ‘really bad year’

Then, in 2023, Sue spoke about a “scam” going around saying she had lost weight using “keto gummies”, reports MailOnline.

The fake ads claimed she had found success using their products, but she denied knowing anything about them, let alone using them. She had lost weight, she clarified. But not out of choice.

“I had a really bad year,” she told the Loose Women panel. “I had a hysterectomy in March. Then a few weeks ago, I ended up in A&E, I don’t need to go into details, but I have not been on a diet this year. I have been seriously ill.

“It was a scary, scary time. I had surgery and ended up in intensive care. There is no diet, there are no gummies. These companies pray on vulnerable people all the time.”

She’s able to laugh it off now, but at the time, Sue took the issue very seriously (Credit: Loose Women/YouTube)
Sue’s health scare gave her a ‘poke’ towards making a change in her life

During an episode of Loose Women a few weeks ago, Sue explained that she’s been planning her departure from Coronation Street since as early as 2022. But her stint in the intensive care unit gave her the extra push in that direction.

“I think when anything like that happens, there’s two ways to go, isn’t there?” Sue said, before going into her own health issues. “I was very shocked by it but what it did to for me is it gave me a little poke and helped me make the decision, as I’m leaving Corrie, it made me wake up and think life is too short,” she continued.

“It did galvanise me into making change in my life, and a promise to myself that I was going to live fearlessly. And that meant getting out of my comfort zone,” she said.

“If you can get to a stage where that illness doesn’t define you, that you can move past it, it can be a really useful tool to say: ‘I’m glad that happened. Because of that, this where I am now and this is what I’m doing now.’”