Samantha Giles felt "very low" when she left 'Emmerdale'.
Samantha Giles
The 48-year-old actress - who starred as Bernice Blackstock on the ITV soap on and off from 1998 until her departure in November last year - admitted it would've been "easy" for her to remain in the Dales "forever", but she wanted to try her hand at something else.
She said: "I felt very low when I first left. I'd gone from seeing people every day and being so busy to nothing. But I had to go through it.
"I knew it would be so easy to stay there forever as it was a great job, but I wanted to try and do something different with my life. I'm turning 50 next year and I knew I'd regret it if I never gave something else a go.
"But during lockdown I made a new routine. I now try and think positively about the future. I concentrate on what I want in my mind and hopefully it will manifest."
Samantha - who has written her first children's book, 'Rosemary And The Witches Of Pendle Hill' - joked she thought she would "kill" her husband during the early stages of lockdown, and initially she just wanted to stay in bed "and not get out" when the coronavirus pandemic first hit.
The actress - who has daughters Eve, 12 and Olivia, eight - added to the Sunday Mirror newspaper: "Initially I thought I was going to kill my husband.
"He was rearranging things in the kitchen and being annoying. Plus I need people around me.
"I've had some very difficult weeks to be honest. When lockdown started I just wanted to get into bed and not get out."
Samantha recently admitted she felt "a little disappointed" with her 'Emmerdale' exit storyline.
She said: "If she had been killed, perhaps I'd have got a better exit story as it was a little disappointing.
"I had quite a lot of people on Twitter saying that they felt a bit cheated by the way Bernice left, but it's done now. You can't please everyone!"
Instead of a dramatic exit, Bernice was last seen saying goodbye to the Dales so she could go and care for her ex-husband Charlie in Australia.