She’s famous for playing party-loving Roxy Mitchell, but we’re about to see a completely different side to EastEnders actress Rita Simons as she explores her Jewish faith in the new series of Pilgrimage.
For Rita, 46, taking on the Catholic pilgrimage route of Portugal’s Fatima Way with six other celebrities was a welcome chance to show people who she really is.
“I wanted to show I’m not this party girl from Ibiza in the East End, I’m actually not Roxy, I’m Rita, I’m a mum, I’m middle-aged,” she says. “It was refreshing to be asked to do something where we’re talking spiritual ideas and culture.”
Although she was raised as Jewish, the former soap star is the first to admit that she isn’t particularly religious, saying: “I’m sure there’ll be some people who will judge.”
But after a tough few years which included divorce, hysterectomy and a battle with depression, Rita knows that life’s too short to worry about other people’s opinions. “If anyone’s got a problem with it then maybe they need to get a hobby,” she says.
Also trekking the route through the stunning Portuguese landscape alongside her for the fifth season of the BBC Two show are Christians Su Pollard, Millie Knight and Shane Lynch, Catholic Bobby Seagull, Muslim Nabil Abdulrashid, and agnostic Vicky Pattison.
The pilgrims quickly formed a tight group – as Rita explains: “You’re literally digging into someone’s soul when you’re asking about their faith.”
“You never know what you’re going to get on a show like that,” she adds. “I wasn’t expecting that level of caring about somebody on a documentary.
“Me and Bobby bonded over washing our underwear in a sink together and then hanging it on each other’s bags to dry as we walked. I slept in a bed with Su most nights.”
Rita says it would be impossible to pick her favourite from the group, but it sounds like blind Paralympic skier Millie is a pretty strong contender.
“My daughter Maiya’s deaf, she doesn’t define herself by being deaf, she’s still a working actress in her own right,” says Rita. “Millie is exactly the same, it just happens that she’s blind, that’s almost by the by. She’s just fearless. And hysterical, she makes me laugh when she calls me Mummy.”
Of course, this isn’t the first time Rita has been thrown together with a bunch of other celebrities to camp out in basic conditions – she starred in the 2018 series of I’m A Celebrity and incredibly, all of her campmates (including Harry Redknapp, Emily Atack and Fleur East) are still friends with no one having left the cast WhatsApp group.
“I think we might be the only ones still in touch,” she laughs. “We’ve been trying to hook up for three years. It’s impossible with all our schedules.”
Rita still loves watching the ITV show, but was as shocked as anyone to see former health secretary Matt Hancock arrive in the jungle last year.
“It’s unbelievable that he went in,” she says. “I feel like if he ever steps foot back into politics again then it’s disgraceful.
“I just think he’s off his rocker at a time like this to come into one of the most watched shows in Britain and try and pass himself off as a celebrity…my jaw was on the floor.”
The actress’s fierce loyalty to co-stars who have become close friends also includes best mate Sam Womack, who starred alongside her in EastEnders as sister Ronnie and the pair were even killed off together when they drowned at Ronnie’s 2017 wedding.
In 2022, Sam shared that she was in recovery from breast cancer and although it’s clear that Rita has been supporting her friend, she remains tight lipped on the subject.
“We’re still really good mates, she’s in Spain now doing her quiet recovery, I can’t say too much about her, but she’s good and she’s recovering,” Rita says.
Although Rita doesn’t the watch soap since her exit, she believes her old show is in safe hands for the future, thanks to EastEnders boss Chris Clenshaw.
“With someone like Chris in charge, I think EastEnders is going to be fine,” she predicts. “I don’t think people will ever want rid of EastEnders. Maybe over the years it might die out as there’s such a huge range of stuff to watch. But for the short term, for this generation and the next, I don’t see it going anywhere.”
She adds that she’d be happy to see her daughter, Maiya, 17, add a soap to her acting CV but admits her influence is limited to “being a taxi service to her auditions”.
Rita is immensely proud of her daughter’s career, and relieved that there is so much more safeguarding in place than when she started out in the industry.
“I would be so shocked if my daughter was exposed to any of the non-PC nonsense that we used to have to put up with as women,” she says.
“If she was exposed to something terrible she would certainly know how to defend herself, I’ve taught her that and then some.”
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