EastEnders legend Charlie Brooks celebrates a year booze-free after ditching alcohol and storming back to Soapland

ACTRESS Charlie Brooks has celebrated a year booze-free after ditching alcohol and sealing a return to Eastenders.

Charlie - making an Albert Square comeback as bad girl Janine Butcher – has told pals she has “never felt better” after marking a full year of sobriety.

And last night a source said: “Charlie feels like she has had a new lease of life after totally kicking booze and sticking to it.

“She has recently celebrated going a year without a drink, which is a big milestone for anyone who has done what she’s done.

 “She celebrated with a soft drink, of course, and by chatting to friends.  

“Charlie made a big and brave decision and has stuck by her guns.

“She says she’s never felt better, and it has helped her with family life and her work.

“Charlie is in a really good place and is happy and healthy – sometimes a bit nauseatingly so.”

Charlie – whose return to the soap as murderous villain Janine was revealed last month – turned 40 last week and marked the occasion with close friends and family, and without drinking.

The 2012 I’m A Celebrity Get me out of Here winner wrote online how she marked the milestone with “best friends, family, sunrise, walks, morris dancers, kitchen dance offs and so much delicious food.”

Mum of one Charlie has also posted an Instagram video of herself dancing in a kitchen with a pal with the strapline #morningsarethenewnightsout.

The soap icon told in an interview last month how quitting booze had been a “life-changing” decision.

Speaking on pal Kate Thornton’s podcast, she added: “I was fed up of repetitive behaviour patterns and felt like my life was standing still.

“I feel like there may have been some things I missed out on. I feel the booze robs you of your potential.

“It was necessary for me to stop drinking in order to reinvent myself. I feel like I’m becoming much more cemented in who I am.”

Charlie’s Eastenders character Janine was central to some of the soap’s darkest storylines before she left in 2014.

Janine has been thorough drug addiction, turned to prostitution, stabbed herself to frame love-rival Stacey Branning and killed three husbands including Barry Evans.

More than 14million viewers tuned in to see her push Barry (Shaun Williamson) off a cliff in Scotland in 2004.

She is set to return to the square with a "huge storyline".

The actress lives with daughter Kiki, 16, in Surrey and co-parents with her ex Tony Truman, who lives nearby.

Club promoter Tony - still close friends with Charlie - paid tribute to her last week as they celebrated her 40th with a non-alcoholic cocktail.

He wrote on Instagram: “Wow, where have the last 20 years gone darling? From a 20-year-old TV starlet to a 40-year-old entrepreneurial mother.

“So proud of you for all the amazing achievements over that period and how you have become the most incredible independent woman.”

A representative for Charlie declined to comment.