Cell extrusion allows the elimination of minorities of cells from the epithelium. Although this process entails active events that occur within the extruding cell, much less is known on the role of its neighbouring cells. Using apoptotic cell extrusion as a model, we found that as cell extrusion completes, the junctions on neighbouring cells, elongate and form multicellular junctions or “rosettes”. Computational modelling and experimentation show that active mechanical softening of junctions plays a key role during these junctional rearrangements that have all the characteristic of a topological transition. Junctional mechanotransduction is essential for epithelial topological transitions during extrusion as tension-sensitive junctional accumulation of cofilin-1 activates SFKs that are required for active junctional softening. We therefore propose that softening of the tissue plays a key role facilitating the topological that favours extrusion.