EastEnders’ Tiffany Butcher star Maisie Smith speaks to Bizarre’s Dan Wootton about new singing career

SHE’S known as the cheeky child star who played Tiffany Butcher on EastEnders.

But after making her final appearance on the soap this month, 15-year-old MAISIE SMITH is now fully focused on her budding singing career.

, she described the devastation of saying goodbye to her screen family for good when moved out of Albert Square in 2014.

She said: “It was quite a shock because obviously I’d been on it for seven years. I’d grown up - that’s all I really remember being on EastEnders. And the day after I left I just sat at home doing absolutely nothing.”

And Maisie says leaving soap mum PATSY PALMER behind was particularly heart-wrenching.

“Patsy was like a second mum to me and she looked exactly like my mum so a lot of the time I got confused! I’ve been to her house so much I remember after EastEnders I’d spend the weekend with her and it was just like she was part of my life and it felt so weird when I left and she wasn’t there with me all the time.”

But Maisie, who is now doing her GCSEs, said adjusting to a normal teenage lifestyle following her departure wasn’t difficult.

She said: “It didn’t feel that weird at the time because I’ve never really felt like I’ve been in the limelight. I’ve got my acting life, I’ve got my singing life and I’ve got my school life. So when I did leave, going back to school wasn’t a drastic change.”

Having wowed fans with her cover of JUSTIN BIEBER’s Let Me Love You on YouTube, Maisie now has a producer and has just launched debut single Good Thing.

Penned about a romantic relationship, it includes the lyrics: “I know what we got is worth fighting for. This love we found is what I’m looking for. We got a good thing. We got a good thing going baby.”