I've grown up on Emmerdale... it's not my choice to leave but I do get why I have to do

Emmerdale's Daisy Campbell is leaving the Dales after 13 years after show bosses have called time on her character in a shock move that left her "grieving".

- CHRISTINE SMITH

The 21-year-old actress admits she had been secretly struggling since she was called into a meeting and told she would be written out this December.

Daisy told the Mirror: "It wasn't my choice to leave Emmerdale and it was a shock at first. Being in Emmerdale is all I have ever known. I've spent the whole of my childhood growing up in the soap and it felt daunting Her character Amelia is currently in a relationship with evil Tom King oblivious to his abuse of Belle Dingle, and is mum to Esther, two, after her shock pregnancy with Samson Dingle.

But after Amelia's on-screen parents left the Dales, bosses told Daisy they had run out of storylines for her.

"Once they explained, I totally got it says Daisy. "Amelia isn't part of the Dingles, her dad has left, Samson has gone and she doesn't have any family.

"There is nowhere to take Amelia and I understand that. I feel incredibly lucky to have been in the soap for 13 years and to have been handed so many opportunities at such a young age.

Daisy was given the news in May but has only now felt ready to announce her departure.

For two months, only her closest friends knew her co-stars Rosie Bentham, Katie Hill and Jack Downham.

"They were upset for me but so supportive," says Daisy.