Former EastEnders star Maisie Smith struggled to speak after soap

Former EastEnders star Maisie Smith might seem super confident portraying Tiffany Butcher on the soap, and then strutting her stuff on the Strictly Come Dancing dancefloor, but she said that's not the case at all.

The actress has revealed she has "struggled" speaking since her soap days, as she was often around adults which made her feel "slightly undermined", as they would often talk over her.

She said this developed and she'd often "go blank" and not be able to get her words out, but it seems to have really dented her confidence.

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"I have no idea how people see me because I just assume you just take one look at me and think, 'Oh cocky little Essex girl', which is true, but there's a lot more to me that people don't know," she told The Daily Star.

"I was on Eastenders for 13 years, which was all I can remember. I sometimes think I'm more comfortable being Tiffany than I am being Maisie.

"The good thing about being an actress is that I know how to look confident. In reality, I have no idea what I'm doing."

She then explained her speaking issues and said she just "hated the person I was for a long time" because of it.

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"I've struggled sort of speaking," she said, before explaining: "And I've had, not a stutter, but I just could go blank and words wouldn't come out and I think the more that happened, the more people would just sort of talk over me."

"I found it pretty hard and I just hated the person I was for a long time," she continued.

The actress, who left the soap last year, recently opened up about the possibility of her returning to Albert Square at some point in the future, and she revealed she isn't ruling anything out.

EastEnders airs on Mondays - Thursdays at 7.30pm on BBC One. The show also streams on BBC iPlayer.