EASTENDERS star Gemma Bissix has revealed her kids think she is now a cool mum following an emotional return to the BBC soap after 18 years.

The actress, who first played Clare Bates in the 1990s when she was just nine years old, is now a parent to two young girls

In an exclusive interview with The Sun on Sunday, 42-year-old Gemma reveals that daughters Juliette, ten, and eight-year-old Vienna are no longer embarrassed by her as she racks up followers on social media.

Speaking about her kids and what they thought of her, she says: “I was a cringe mum!

“They’re not allowed on TikTok or anything but I’ve set up a little account. We now do these videos together and dance routines, and I’m not so uncool any more.”

Gemma, who lives in Surrey with husband Kristian Ruse and their girls, always hoped to return to Albert Square one day.

Last year she burst back on to our TV screens in rival soap Hollyoaks after her twisted, murdering character Clare Devine was brought back from the dead for a six-month stint.

Now she has returned to Albert Square for a hard-hitting storyline centred around her stepdad Nigel having dementia.

As well as her two children, Gemma’s 86-year-old gran Tina is also delighted about her latest ­comeback — particularly as she is not a man-eating killer like on Hollyoaks.

Gemma said: “My grandmother said, ‘I want the Women’s Institute people to be proud of you.

“‘They don’t want to watch you being a murderous seductress’.

“She’s a staunch Catholic. I told her it was quite emotional what I’ve done in EastEnders and she said, ‘Oh that’s great,’ and I was like, ‘Oh right — so you want to see me cry?’.”

She admits returning to EastEnders was poignant due to her close bond with Dame Barbara Windsor, who died from Alzheimer’s disease, a form of dementia, in 2020 aged 83.

Gemma said: “Barbara was such an amazing friend to me. She got me my agent when I left EastEnders at 15.

“She was just an amazing woman, and her husband Scott — what an amazing man.

“He sent me messages saying how proud she was of me because I’d started out so young.

“Scott told me that Barbara always said that I was going to be a star. How lovely is that?”

Gemma told how it felt like “coming home” when she walked through the studio gates in Elstree, Herts, to film her scenes in December and January.

She said: “All the guys from the market, all the supporting artists, long-standing regulars — they all said I hadn’t changed a bit.

“I was like, thank you! It’s only 20 years and I have aged a bit.”

Gemma had not seen her on-screen dad Paul Bradley for 26 years but working with the actor again was a breeze.

The pair had become close during their five years working together from 1993 to 1998, and Gemma feels like he had been like a father to her.

She said: “We keep an eye on each other on social media a little bit. When we saw each other it was like no time had passed at all.”

Memorable storylines during her first stint on the soap include the hit-and-run death of Clare’s mum Debbie and a custody ­battle involving abusive biological father Liam which stepdad Nigel won.

Gemma also worked with Patsy Palmer, who played Bianca Jackson, and Natalie Cassidy, who played Sonia Jackson.

But in real life aged 11, she had to navigate her parents’ divorce in the public eye.

Gemma said: “They fell out of love with each other.

“When I was a teenager, my dad met someone else. My relationship with my stepmum was a bit rocky for three or four years but she is incredible and she and my dad are still ­married. I’ve got two extra sisters because of it. But when you’re 14 and you feel like another woman has taken your place, it’s really dark.

“You wish you could go back and tell your child self that everything is going to be OK.”

Sadly, Gemma was also bullied for being a child star.

She said: “At school they used to pick on you because you were that girl from EastEnders.

“Thankfully, I had a tough skin at that age.

“Boys would ask you out then dump you the next day just because they could say that they did that to the girl from EastEnders.

“I’ve helped with anti-bullying ­campaigns. Luckily I was really young when it happened to me so it wasn’t too damaging.”

Gemma left EastEnders when she was 14, and decided to train as an electrician when she finished school.

She said: “My dad had an electrical wholesale shop and my brother has got an electrical wholesale shop now.

“My husband has a skip company, so I’m very much still in the building trade. I still do the voiceovers for my husband’s company.”

One of Gemma’s first memories of Albert Square was being taken under the wing of Steve McFadden — the soap’s hardman Phil Mitchell — who taught her a key lesson.

She said: “The second day that I started I was in the canteen looking at my scripts, and he came up and said to me ‘Do you know your lines?

“I was pretty confident and said, ‘Yeah’. He took my script off me and said, ‘Go on then’.

“My heart was racing but I got all my lines out, and he said to me, ‘Well done. You know you can do it’.

“I’ve used the same method to help other kids starting out.”

This time round, Gemma’s first scene back was with Kat Slater icon Jessie Wallace — who is 5ft 1in.

She said: “We were doing a scene and the director said: ‘Could you reach up to these balloons?’

“Jessie was sitting round the corner, and I don’t know why, but I said, ‘Are you sure you can reach them?’

“She joked: ‘Oi! Of course I can — what are you saying?’ It was in Jessie’s trademark laugh.

“I felt at ease because you really feel like you’re part of an ensemble.”

The dementia storyline is close to Gemma’s heart because as well as Dame Barbara, her best friend’s dad also had the condition.

In order to make the scenes as realistic as possible the writers sought advice from experts at the charity Dementia UK.

Gemma said: “My good friend’s dad had early onset dementia.

“He was in a care home when we were in our 20s and we used to drive down from Surrey with her every couple of weeks to see him. It’s such a heartbreaking disease.”

Gemma said her kids cannot wait to see her back on TV.

She said they even asked if they were going to live in a mansion — but she told them: “Don’t get ahead of yourself — it’s only a few episodes.”

But with the buzz her return has created, Gemma says “never say never” to a permanent return.”