Former EastEnders actress Carol Harrison said she felt rejected and suffered a mental breakdown after being dropped from the soap.
The 64-year-old appeared on ITV's This Morning and told presenters Holly Willoughby and Phillip Schofield she found out she no longer had a job after reading it in the press.
Carol played Louise Raymond from 1998-9, and the character is most remembered for her affair with Grant Michell while he was married to Tiffany, her daughter.
She said: "She was a fascinating, multi-layered character."
She also said how she used to be recognised wherever she went, but then there was a change in management.
Carol told Holly and Phil: "There was a change in management and people didn't know if they were going to have a job.
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"Others found out about it in the press, and I thought ' how awful' and then a week later I read that I didn't have a job in the newspaper."
The former London's Burning star said she thought other acting offers would come.
She said: "I thought I did really well [on EastEnders] and played her [Louise] really well, if you are rubbish you kind of know.
"But the fact was I was in my forties then.
"It's kind of the stigma around the age, that cougar character.
"I felt I went from desirable to desperate. I felt a real sense of rejection. It was an age thing."
BBC EastEnders actress looks completely different four years after leaving soap
After finding it difficult to find good parts for older women, Carol is now excited about her new project, stage show Thunder Girls alongside Loose Women's Coleen Nolan and Coronation Street's Beverley Callard.
*This Morning is on ITV1, weekdays from 10:30am
