Balvinder Sopal has described her EastEnders character Suki's marriage to Nish (Navin Chowdhry) as "toxic".
Nish arrived in the Square late last year, having spent 20 years in jail for murdering a man he falsely believed was having an affair with Suki.
Suki, meanwhile, has spent the last two decades uncertain about her sexuality and has had a secret dalliance with fellow Walford resident Eve (Heather Peace).
In an attempt to prove that her relationship is solid, Suki has agreed to have a marriage blessing with Nish - and whether she goes along with it plays out in this Friday's episode.
"I think it's different for both characters," Sopal said of their vow renewals. "For Suki, it's a case of trying to lead the life that she is expected to lead and one she knows will have fewer obstacles and pain.
"It's more of a familiar path and she also doesn't want to lose her family and her children, so there's a sense of having to do it because staying means that she gets the things that are important to her.
"It feels quite evil to be doing that to Eve unfortunately, but I think she tries to prove to herself that Eve isn't what she wants or what she should have. I guess she's trying to protect Eve too when she understands their life together won't be happy, so she's trying to cut Eve free and let her go while trying to prove to herself this is the right thing to do for everybody."
In recent episodes Nish's jealous side has reared its ugly head again after he spotted Suki interacting with neighbour Mitch (Roger Griffiths).
"It's horrible, I think it's just awful," Sopal continued. "It also makes you think, you know, what does he think of Suki?
"There is no love there between Suki and Nish, I think that died a long time ago when she saw him for who he really was. He killed someone because he thought Suki was having an affair with them, so you see the person for who they really are.
"His love is toxic - it's not an all-encompassing, open, free-flowing love where Suki can be who she wants to be. It's a love that comes with conditions, control and is driven by his needs, wants and passions.
"When you feel like you don't have an equal hand in the relationship, you start to resent the person quite a lot.
"Suki is of course in love with somebody else. I think she's trying to work it out but can't. Maybe she's in auto-pilot and she's experiencing a concoction of lots of feelings and experiences going on at the same time.
"Nish being jealous is not helpful - it makes her feel dirty and makes her feel like she's wrong and doesn't have the right to exist in her full entity as a human being."
EastEnders continues Thursday at 7.30pm on BBC One and from 6am on iPlayer.
Neil Wilkes
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