Jacqueline Jossa has revealed her struggle to balance motherhood with her role in EastEnders.
The actress, who played Lauren Branning on the BBC One soap, bowed out from screens earlier this month.
She had previously announced that she was leaving the series alongside actress Lorna Fitzgerald, who played her now-deceased onscreen sister Abi.
Jossa also revealed last month that she was pregnant with her second child with husband Dan Osborne.
And, taking to her YouTube channel this weekend, the actress opened up about her morning sickness as well as her struggles to balance caring for her first child Ella alongside her busy EastEnders schedule, a task she found "really hard."
"Yeah, obviously of course it was [hard being a new mum and being on EastEnders]," she said. "It was really hard."
"At first I thought maybe I wouldn't be able to do it. I just felt like I was missing so much of Ella's little life."
She added: "I felt like there were times I'd be working 7-7 all week, and I'd come home and be like, 'Where's my child? What has she done this week, what has she learnt?'.
"She'd be like this new little child and I'd be missing everything. I'm really excited to spend time with her. It was very very hard."
With her schedule more clear now, we wish Jossa a healthy and happy second pregnancy.
EastEnders airs Mondays, Tuesdays, Thursdays and Fridays on BBC One.
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