EX-EASTENDERS heartthrob Jack Ryder has revealed two of the soap’s biggest stars “barely spoke” off set due to their characters’ on-screen rivalry.

Jack, who played Jamie Mitchell between 1998 and 2002, said fictional family loyalties carried through to when the cameras stopped rolling.

Show stalwart Steve McFadden, who plays gravelly-voiced hardman Phil Mitchell, didn’t really speak to James Alexandrou [Martin Fowler], despite starring alongside him for 11 years between 1996 and 2007.

“What was interesting was that families really did stick together, at least that was my experience,” said Jack.

“The Mitchells were very close off camera, but James Alexandrou, who played Martin Fowler, would tell me he barely spoke to Steve. Those family ties ran deep back then.” he said on behalf of new online bingo brand Zingo Bingo.

Relations between Martin and Phil really soured after Jamie’s death in 2022, which happened after Martin accidentally ran him over.

Years later, Martin would kidnap Phil’s son Ben and dangle him off a railway bridge after accusing Phil of stealing his wife Sonia.

Phil helped her and daughter Rebecca flee the country when she was under suspicion of killing Martin’s mum Pauline.

As for his own relationship with Steve, Jack couldn’t have rated him any more highly.

“Steve is such a skilled actor, and what people don’t realise is how committed he is to the craft. Even if we were filming a scene in the garage and he was under a car bonnet, he’d want to know the intricate details of what his character was doing so it felt authentic.

“I learned a hell of a lot from him, not just as an actor but as a man. He’d blush hearing me say that, but he was very paternal towards me on set. I remember being really unwell once and being sick in the toilet, and he carried me to the bed in his dressing room and shut the door.

“He always looked out for me and knew I had a lot to take on with the fame and intensity of it.”

The set had a real family vibe at that time, before the days of social media and smartphones.

Jack recalled sharing banter with Michael Greco, Dean Gaffney and Sean Williamson, and having deeper conversations with show matriarch Barbara Windsor.

Seventeen years later, Jack found the mood on BBC medical drama Holby City very different.

He said: “It was a lovely cast and crew, but I noticed that between takes, people were on their phones.”

The soap was so big back then that even the coolest rock stars of the era were fans.

Jack recalled how he was cornered for a chat by the Gallagher brothers, years before Oasis split.

“Top of the Pops was filmed next door to our studios, and I remember being backstage one day and just hearing, ‘Jack!’ When I turned around, it was Liam Gallagher.

“I was a huge Oasis fan. I sat and had this lovely chat with him, then Noel turned up and started talking to me. We got on really well, and they asked what I was doing.

“I told them I had a two-hour break, so they asked me to come and watch them rehearse in the studio. An afternoon like that was amazing and felt like a real moment.”

While he took his acting seriously and relished meeting his musical heroes, he was less keen on his heartthrob status and the attention from countless screaming girls.

He said: “Girls chasing me down the street, groups of ten screaming girls, it was honestly hard to cope with. People would say, ‘That must have been amazing,’ but it wasn’t easy at all.

“What I did enjoy were the one-to-one interactions. Meeting someone in the street, who’d have that initial moment of excitement and then realise you were just a normal human being, and you could have a genuine conversation. That was always lovely, and I really valued those moments.

“But the frenzy, the crying, screaming, fainting, and complete loss of control was overwhelming. I was getting 20,000 letters a week. It was a lot. When you can’t calm people down or make it stop, I honestly don’t know how anyone truly learns to deal with that.”

Jack has branched out since his days in EastEnders and has long since outgrown his famous curtains hairstyle.

He’s had success on the stage as both an actor and director, starred in radio soap The Archers, and published his first novel in 2020.