{"id":626113,"date":"2026-06-07T14:37:08","date_gmt":"2026-06-07T14:37:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/626113\/"},"modified":"2026-06-07T14:37:08","modified_gmt":"2026-06-07T14:37:08","slug":"natalie-cassidy-looks-back-eastenders-amazing-matriarchs-taught-me-everything-about-acting-family","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/626113\/","title":{"rendered":"Natalie Cassidy looks back: \u2018EastEnders\u2019 amazing matriarchs taught me everything about acting\u2019 | Family"},"content":{"rendered":"

Natalie Cassidy in a bridesmaid-looking dress, holding a trumpet, in 1996 and 2026<\/a>Natalie Cassidy in 1996 and 2026. Later photograph: P\u00e5l Hansen\/The Guardian. Styling: Andie Redman. Hair and makeup: Alice Theobald at Arlington Artists and Hair Gain. Archive photograph: BBC<\/p>\n

Born in Islington, London, in 1983, Natalie Cassidy is best known for playing Sonia Fowler in EastEnders<\/a>. She joined the soap in 1993, and after leaving in 2007, she returned several times before making her final exit in April 2025. As well as theatre work, Cassidy has appeared in TV shows including Psychoville, Motherland and Boarders. She hosts\u00a0the podcast Life With Nat and\u00a0co-hosts Off the Telly. Natalie\u00a0Cassidy: Caring Together is on BBC\u00a0One and iPlayer now.<\/p>\n

This was taken on the freezing cold set of EastEnders when I was 13. It was Sonia\u2019s mum\u2019s wedding, so they\u2019d given her a trumpet to play at the ceremony. A genius idea from the writers, as the trumpet brought light and comedy to the role. Sadly, like most soap characters, she got downtrodden over the years. Humour has a tendency to fade after a long time on Albert Square.<\/p>\n

I\u2019d been doing EastEnders for three years by this point. I was a confident kid and an old soul. Instead of hanging out with the other child actors on set, I\u2019d always sit with Wendy Richard, June Brown, Pam St\u00a0Clement or Barbara Windsor. Those amazing, matriarchal women taught me everything I needed to know about being an actor. It\u2019s been really sad losing most of them over the years. Lots of my friends are in their 70s; if I\u00a0keep befriending old people I have to accept they\u2019re all going to die soon.<\/p>\n

I loved working as a kid \u2013 I was a consummate professional and never late. The cast and crew were like a family, and I wanted to be there all the time. Whereas I couldn\u2019t really win at school. As much as I loved learning, the other students were jealous because I was on the telly. I\u2019d get a bit of stick, so eventually thought, if you can\u2019t beat them, join them. I ended up hanging out with the naughty lot, which was a shame.<\/p>\n

My childhood was very loving. It was a calm, quiet house, as my parents were in their 40s when I came along, and my brothers were 15 and 18, so were more independent. Nanny Liz was with us,\u00a0too; Mum cared for her until she died when I was nine. I think that\u2019s why I loved going to work with lots of noise and people doing a turn \u2013 I\u2019d never really been around that kind of energy growing up. That being said, I would often go and sit in hospital wards when my nan was poorly and entertain all of the elderly patients. Singing and dancing, trying to make people laugh.<\/p>\n

double quotation markI used to go to gay clubs in Soho with H from Steps and bump into Gok Wan and have a brilliant, random night out<\/p>\n

I was eight when I joined Anna Scher\u2019s theatre school in Islington. She was extraordinary, someone who set up the sort of creative environment where anyone \u2013 any race, gender, age or religion \u2013 could pay \u00a32 and join in. She always gave me a chance and was the one who put me up for the EastEnders audition in 1993, even though I\u2019d not been going that long.<\/p>\n

When I got the part, the magnitude of what was about to happen was lost on all of us. Nobody in my family was in entertainment \u2013 my dad was a newsagent \u2013 and we didn\u2019t even watch EastEnders, my parents liked Coronation Street. If they\u2019d known what a huge show it was, I\u2019m not sure they would have let me do it. They would have liked me to remain their little girl for longer, to run around outside and be free, rather than work.<\/p>\n

Despite the strict schedule, I did love to let my hair down. In my teens I\u2019d go clubbing, sometimes with some cast members, but mostly my own friends. I was good mates with H\u00a0from Steps at one point. We used to go to gay\u00a0clubs in Soho and bump into Gok\u00a0Wan and have a brilliant, random night out. I have very fond memories of drinking a warm can of Red Stripe and dancing to the Smiths at the 100\u00a0Club on Oxford Street.<\/p>\n

My mum died a week after my 19th birthday. I feel a lot of guilt and anger about the way I dealt with it. I kept working and partying, and didn\u2019t stop when I should have been there for my family. At 19, you\u2019re selfish and you don\u2019t want to be around your parents. The grief of losing her didn\u2019t hit me properly until I lost my dad, five years ago. But I did things differently with him. I bought a house with an annexe so he could live with us. For four years,\u00a0we had quality time together. I had the honour of being with him when he\u00a0passed.<\/p>\n

The first time I left EastEnders was in my early 20s. I had been there for 14 years and wanted to try something new. I did a brilliant play called Bedroom Farce, and The Cherry Orchard at Chichester Festival theatre. To subsidise those amazing projects I also put out a fitness DVD, and signed up for all the reality shows\u00a0like\u00a0Strictly and Celebrity Big Brother. Theatre work doesn\u2019t pay the\u00a0tax bills,\u00a0unfortunately.<\/p>\n

I\u2019ve had a lot of memorable moments on screen: teen pregnancies, being arrested for murder, a kidnapping. But during the dress rehearsal for our live 40th anniversary episode, I\u00a0got completely carried away. Sonia was giving birth in the rubble of the Vic \u2013 as you do \u2013 and I was being pushed and pulled and strained, until I heard this little pop. I carried on, of course. Finished the rehearsal, then afterwards mentioned I was feeling really sore. Everyone was telling me I had to go to hospital, but I kept saying no, we had rehearsals to get through, I\u2019d be fine. Eventually I went the next day, had an X-ray, and the doctor looked at me and said: \u201cWhat have you done? Have you been in a car accident?\u201d Apparently I\u2019d fractured my sternum. It\u2019s a very rare injury. I asked what I could do, and they said there was nothing \u2013 just rest, don\u2019t put it under any pressure. I said: \u201cI\u2019m going live tonight, unfortunately. I\u2019ve got to do it all again.\u201d<\/p>\n

My daughters are 15 and nine, around the same age that I started on EastEnders. I wouldn\u2019t want them to be famous, that\u2019s for sure. Mostly because of the internet, but also because I don\u2019t like the celebrity world. I\u2019ve met a lot of people in this industry who I worry about. Fame is so important to them. I\u2019ve had it all my\u00a0life, and I don\u2019t know what it\u2019s like to not be famous. I can\u2019t remember not being recognised in the street. It\u2019s not a big deal to me. Plus, I am lucky \u2013\u00a0I\u00a0don\u2019t tend to think about or care how anyone else perceives me. I have never given a shit.<\/p>\n

Earlier this year, I left EastEnders with my trumpet in the back of a car with my sister Bianca and the new baby, Julia. It was a lovely, funny send-off, but I won\u2019t miss the relentless schedule \u2013 having to skip the kids\u2019 assemblies, never being able to book a doctor\u2019s appointment or make plans with friends. This industry isn\u2019t very friendly for mums, and I want to be home a lot more now.<\/p>\n

A lot of actors are very bitter about their soap origins. When I look at this picture, I just see a character who has given me so much. That\u2019s why I\u2019ve been able to leave again in a really amicable manner, and why maybe I\u2019ll go back once more. I love Sonia, and the trumpet. All of her is a part of me.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Natalie Cassidy in a bridesmaid-looking dress, holding a trumpet, in 1996 and 2026Natalie Cassidy in 1996 and 2026.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":626114,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[32],"tags":[6491,96,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-626113","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-celebrities","tag-celebrities","tag-entertainment","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/626113","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=626113"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/626113\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/626114"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=626113"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=626113"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=626113"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}