Emmerdale actress Shila Iqbal has been fired from the soap after using racial slurs in a series of historic tweets.
The 24-year-old, who played Aiesha Richards on the ITV series, used offensive language in multiple posts shared in 2013.
Iqbal has since deleted her Twitter account.
“As a consequence of historic social media posts, Shila Iqbal has left her role as Aiesha Richards on Emmerdale,” an ITV spokesperson confirmed.
“The programme took the decision not to renew her contract as soon as these posts were brought to the company’s attention.
The actress apologised for her remarks in a statement shortly after her departure was confirmed.
“I am terribly sorry and take full responsibility for my use of such inappropriate language,” she said. “I have paid the price and can no longer continue the job I loved the most at Emmerdale.
“Although I was young when I made the tweets, it was still completely wrong of me to do so and I sincerely apologise.
“The only consideration I would ask is that I have recently received hateful tweets telling me that as a Muslim my Emmerdale role means that I am ‘committing sinful acts, promoting sin and deliberately going against the Quran.’
“We live in sensitive times for members of all communities and especially those in multi-racial Rochdale where I grew up.
“I regret that I too have let people down by the use of such language, albeit six years ago. I, like everyone else, have a responsibility about the language I have used on social media as well as in conversation.”
Iqbal first appeared on Emmerdale in 2018, and was announced as a series regular in March.
