EastEnders' Michelle Collins: 'Cindy's not an out-and-out villain'

But this is surely to be expected, given when Cindy was first on the Square she hired a hitman to kill her then husband Ian Beale (Adam Woodyatt).

So does this make Cindy a villain deep down, or is she just misunderstood? Well, when this question was posed to actress Michelle Collins she admitted that Cindy is "really complicated".

"Considering what has happened in Cindy's life, she's doing alright," Collins said in a new interview.

She continued: "Cindy should have taken advice off people when they've offered it as she has kind of stoked the fires and caused a lot of heartache in her family.

"She's not a narcissist but she is quite self-absorbed, but I think she's got abandonment issues. She's not an out-and-out villain, she's just not so great at navigating her life."

As fans will remember, Cindy was hit over the head with a shovel on Christmas Day after her affair with Junior was exposed, and everyone is a suspect.

Everyone in the Knight-Beale households all have a motive for attacking Cindy. Could it be Ian, Lauren, Gina or Elaine? The guesses are endless. As for Cindy, "I really don't think she knows," said Collins.

"The scary thing for Cindy is that she knows it's somebody very close to her, and that’s very frightening that someone could hate her so much that they would want her dead," Collins explained. "She really is completely and utterly paranoid and running scared."

While all will be revealed to audiences during the explosive anniversary episode, Collins is already aware of the culprit and admitted she was shocked when she found out.

She said: "I actually thought I knew who it was, but I can see why they’ve done it. There are going to be some great scenes when [Cindy] finds out who it is."

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EastEnders airs Monday to Thursday at 7:30pm on BBC One and from 6am on BBC iPlayer.

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