Hollyoaks' Nikki Sanderson makes ‘difficult decision’ with famous boyfriend

ok.co.uk:

Rumours have been swirling that actress Nikki Sanderson is preparing to leave Hollyoaks after more than a decade playing resilient but troubled Maxine Minniver.The decision to walk away was an “incredibly difficult” one, as she confirms the news for the first time in this exclusive photoshoot and interview.

But a combination of turning 40, having the support of actor boyfriend Anthony Quinlan, 39, and a decade spent delivering some of the soap’s most harrowing scenes, all helped her decide it was the right time.

And while she made the leap without a new job lined up, Blackpool-born Nikki reveals she would be open to jumping the soap ship and wouldn’t totally rule out a return to the cobbles of Corrie. “Deciding to leave was an incredibly difficult decision for me because Maxine is a huge, huge part of my life – and a part of my life that I’ve loved,” she tells us. “It’s difficult to think, ‘It’s time’, and it wasn’t an instant or overnight decision, it took me a long time to make it and it was something I genuinely fought with myself about, but I’m lucky that I could talk to people around me and get people’s opinions. “I’m grateful that I’ve had the stability for so long, now I’ve just got to embrace the instability of not knowing what’s next.” Another contributing factor, she says, was turning 40 last year.

While she had no fear of getting older – and actually thinks this is going to be her best decade yet – the milestone triggered some self reflection. “It feels like yesterday that I turned 21, but it also feels like it was 222 years ago,” she says, laughing. “I know I’m older, and time is going fast, but I want to embrace it and be excited about my forties.