Former EastEnders star Katie Jarvis, who played Hayley Slater in the soap, has had a ‘never ending’ list of normal jobs after a racially aggravated brawl nearly ended her career
Katie Jarvis, known for her role as the feisty Hayley Slater on EastEnders from 2018 to 2019, has made a career shift and is now employed at a garage.
The move comes after a racially aggravated brawl almost ended her career back in 2020, which resulted in a sentence of 200 hours of unpaid work and a 60-hour rehabilitation order.
Since then, the 33 year old took a brave turn back into acting with a part in Rise of the Footsoldier: Origins as Donna, but has chosen to step away from the limelight to focus on her family life and raising her two kids.
Following the end of her EastEnders stint and grieving for late family members at the time, Katie opted for a three-month break from public life before taking up a security role at B&M alongside her sister Becky.
Katie opened up about the decision, recounting, “Rather than sit at home and be depressed and miserable, I thought I’ll go and work with my sister Becky.”
This move to work grabbed media attention once more, with Katie reflecting on the irony of the situation. She said: “So, we both worked at the same place in security, she got me in there, then it turns out a week later, obviously word has got out, and about a week later my phone starts ringing [from the press]. Then, these pictures come out of me the next day, the front of the papers, of me walking into work.”
She also addressed the criticisms that came with having a ‘regular’ job post-fame, highlighting the catch-22 of being judged whether you work or not in such a situation, reports the Mirror.
She opened up about her time on EastEnders: “Up until EastEnders, I never had no bad publicity, no drama, I never had no s**t at all. I go on EastEnders and everyone jumps on everything, everyone’s up your a**e, everyone wants to be in your business, everyone thinks that they know you, it just changes the whole dynamic completely.
“You can’t win, it doesn’t matter what you do, you can’t win,” Katie reflected during an interview on the Criminal Connection podcast.
Between acting gigs, Katie has been keeping herself busy with various jobs. “I’ve done a railway engineering course, I’m qualified in nails, I’ve done all sorts, the list is never ending,” she revealed.
Speaking of her recent roles, she said: “I’ve pulled back a little bit now, the last film I done was The Rise of the Footsolider, I was over the moon to play Donna.
“I’m working at the moment, a normal job, I’ve pulled back from the filming a little bit. I’m working at a garage. It’s similar to what Hayley was in EastEnders, I love it. I love the people I work with as well, it’s great,” she enthused.”
Despite previously hopping from one job to another, Katie said she is “quite happy and settled” at her current job and has no plans to leave, seemingly ruling out a return to the soap.
