Michelle Collins and Adam Woodyatt’s friendship – including rows off-screen

EastEnders favourites Michelle Collins and Adam Woodyatt, who plays Cindy and Ian Beale, share a close bond off-screen, having worked together for decades.

Michelle Collins stunned soap fans when she reprised her role as Cindy Beale in EastEnders last year, despite it being thought that Cindy was dead. She arrived back in Walford alongside her estranged husband, Ian Beale (Adam Woodyatt), with plenty of drama following.

Cindy and Ian soon settled back into life on Albert Square but in true EastEnders fashion, their relationship was thrown into turmoil on several occasions.

Fast forward to December, and Cindy found herself at the centre of the Christmas Day drama, with her affair with Junior Knight (Micah Balfour) being unveiled in spectacular fashion at the Queen Vic.

Michelle and Adam seamlessly slipped back into their roles of Cindy and Ian, despite it having been 25 years since they worked on the BBC soap together.

**Michelle as Cindy and Adam as Ian in EastEnders** (Image: BBC)

**Adam and Michelle are close pals off-screen**

Away from Albert Square, the two actors are good pals, with their close bond visible both on and off-screen. However, Michelle previously revealed that their friendship wasn’t always plain sailing and that she and Adam were prone to arguing back in the day.

Speaking about their early working relationship, Michelle admitted on The One Show last year: “We don’t row anymore. We used to row all the time. We’d kind of grown up together. We used to bicker. They used to call us George and Mildred.

“We used to row all the time. We were very different, but now it’s kind of come full circle. We’ve both been through so much in our lives as people and I think we respect each other so much now. I love Adam, I’m so fond of Adam. He’s been so supportive.”

**Michelle has opened up about her close bond with Adam**

The pair are so close that Michelle called Adam straight away when she found out she would be returning to EE as Cindy last year.

Adam has also been complimentary about his co-star, revealing how “comfortable” the pair is when working together and how easy it was to pick up where they left off.

Adam joked to Express.co.uk and other press last year: “Working with Michelle has been, no offense, like putting on an old pair of slippers,” jokingly adding: “Comfortable and it just works. She is going to kill me tomorrow…”

EastEnders airs Monday – Thursday on BBC One at 7.30pm