Laila Rouass has joined the cast of EastEnders and has opened up on whether or not her character Ayesha Siddhu will end up tearing apart Suki Panesar and Eve Unwin for good?
EastEnders star Laila Rouass has opened up about Ayesha Siddhu’s true feelings for Suki Panesar.
Nish Panesar brought Ayesha to Walford in Monday’s (August 5) episode, after discovering that Suki (Balvinder Sopal) and son Vinny (Shiv Jalota) were working together to bring him down.
It was revealed later that Ayesha is the woman who Suki developed feelings for long ago. Nish killed Ayesha’s husband Hardeep because he assumed his wife was cheating on him with the man.
Nish’s latest plan backfired, as Ayesha confessed to Suki that she had feelings for her back then too. The two women then teamed up to confront Nish and shut down his latest scheme.
Appearing on ITV’s This Morning to discuss her latest character on the BBC soap, Laila said: “She’s smart, intelligent and she’s really kind as well. You never really know and anything can happen. They give you the freedom to develop the character so that was really, really good fun.”
When pressed on Ayesha’s feelings for Suki, Laila paused before saying: “They’re just friends that’s all I’m saying. They are close friends. Nish is dying so its a lot for her to take on but there’s a lot of familiarity with Suki.”
As Suki’s partner Eve Unwin (Heather Peace) continues to get jealous over their friendship in upcoming scenes, will she end up pushing Suki into Ayesha’s arms? Following her bombshell debut, Laila admitted it was “a real shock” for Ayesha to come face-to-face with Suki after all these years.
“There’s a lot she’s had to live with since she last saw Suki,” the actor explained. “When her husband was murdered, she never got to have her say about what happened, and she really needed to. That’s why she agreed to meet Nish when he contacted her.
Back when it happened, Ayesha’s biggest emotion was anger, and in that anger, there was no space to talk to Suki. So, there are lots of layers of emotions now she’s finally face-to-face with her again.”
Laila previously described her EastEnders experience as being everything she’d hoped for “and more”. “I’ve always wanted to do EastEnders, and when it was offered to me, I thought, ‘There is no chance I’m not doing this because I have to experience it once in my lifetime’,” she remembered. “It’s the most excited I’ve ever been to go to work. Being in EastEnders feels like being part of British television history, so it was such a beautiful experience for me.”
EastEnders airs on Mondays to Thursdays at 7.30pm on BBC One
