EMMERDALE star Shila Iqbal has been sacked from her role as Aiesha Richards after historic racist tweets re-emerged.
The soap actress, 24, is reported to have repeatedly used the N-word in the online posts when she was a 19-year-old student at a college in Rochdale, according to Mail Online.
A representative for Emmerdale told The Sun Online: “As a consequence of historic social media posts Shila Iqbal has left her role as Aiesha Richards on Emmerdale.
“The programme took the decision not to renew her contract as soon as these posts were brought to the company’s attention.”
Shila apologised unreservedly after the tweets came to light, citing her young age as a factor.
According to the Mail, she said: “I am terribly sorry and take full responsibility for my use of such inappropriate language…
“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…
“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.”
The shock sacking comes just a month after Shila’s role on the show was made permanent.
Speaking at the time, she said: “I am over the moon to be back at Emmerdale as a regular. My family love Emmerdale and to be appearing in a show that you’ve grown up watching just feels like a dream!…
“[My character] Aiesha very much represents the new generation of social media fascination and her phone is her third hand. She is always camera ready! She speaks her mind, although it comes from a ditzy but good place for sure…”
The emergence of the tweets comes three years after Coronation Street star Marc Anwar was axed from the soap following a racist rant on social media.
The Pakistan-born actor – who first appeared on the cobbles as businessman Sharif Nazir in 2014 – described Indians as “b******s” and “p**s-drinking c***s” in a series of bigoted tweets.
ITV said in a statement at the time: “We are deeply shocked by the entirely unacceptable, racially offensive comments made on Twitter by Marc Anwar.
“We have talked to Marc and, as a consequence of his comments, he will not be returning to Coronation Street with immediate effect.”
His remarks came days after 17 soldiers were killed at an army base in Kashmir and sparked a UN clash between India and Pakistan.
He tweeted: “Why the F***k do #pakistaniartists want work in #f*** face #india, do you love money so much.”
Next tweeting an image of a clenched fist, he added: “Ban #india movies in #PakistanisLeaveIndia. B*****ds p**s drinking #c***s.
“F***ing #indians killing our #Kashmir brothers and sisters, beygairth #NawazSharif still sucking #modi Lul!”
A further entry saw him call on Pakistanis to leave India.
The actor went on to delete his Twitter account.
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