Former EastEnders actress Natalie Cassidy says leaving soap is ‘freeing’ after it ‘took over whole life’
EastEnders star Natalie Cassidy - better known as Sonia Fowler - has spoken how the soap took over her life and leaving after 30 years was ‘freeing’.
After spending more than 30 years on the long-running soap, EastEnders, Natalie Cassidy has said her decision to leave has been freeing. The 42-year-old said the show ‘took over her whole life’ and has noticed her frown lines have faded since her departure.
The actress did speak with fondness about the people she worked with however, saying she most connected with ‘the elders’ on the BBC programme. She mentioned late co-stars Wendy Richards, Barbara Windsor, and June Brown as particularly influential to her.
Windsor played matriarch Peggy Mitchell in the soap and died in 2020. Brown was also a long-term cast member, playing Dot Cotton into her 90s. She died in 2022. Richards, who played Pauline Fowler for many years, died in 2009.
Speaking to Prima magazine, Cassidy said: “Obviously the elders, because I am an old soul. I always connected with Wendy Richards and Barbara Windsor, and I would say that June Brown was my dearest, oldest friend.”
Cassidy left the long-running BBC series earlier this year, after playing the character of Sonia Fowler on and off for more than 30 years. But the award-winning actress would not be averse to returning for guest appearances in the soap, she said.
Since leaving she has enjoyed reinventing herself, previously avoiding certain hairstyles and beauty treatments to “stay true” to her Albert Square character. “Sonia isn’t the most glamorous of characters, bless her, but I wanted to stay true to her character, so I never got extensions put in, or dyed my hair,” she told the magazine.
“She was just a worker who didn’t have a lot of money and worked for the NHS. But coming away, and breaking free, I just thought, ‘I want to be glam. I want to wear coloured nails. And just feel like me’.
“I do feel like my face has changed a little since leaving EastEnders, because I was quite sad and depressed when I was playing Sonia, or angry all the time. So I feel like my frown lines have sort of faded away, which is quite nice.”
Cassidy made her first appearance in the soap in 1993, leaving in 2007, before returning to Walford briefly between 2010 and 2011, and again in 2014. She said she decided to leave EastEnders after turning 40.
“I know it’s a bit of a cliche, but I think turning 40 is a milestone,” she said. “I think you know who you are, you know who your friends are, and where you are in life. And for me, having been in this business for such a long time, I just needed to be free and be open to everything else.
“EastEnders is a brilliant job, but when you’re there, you’re chained. You know where you are and what you’re doing. But you haven’t got any time to plan anything else, so it does take over your whole life.”
Cassidy, who appears on the front cover of Prima’s November issue, said it had been “freeing leaving EastEnders”, but “Albert Square will always hold a place in my heart”.
:: The November 2025 issue of Prima is now on sale.