Natalie Cassidy was loved in Albert Square as Sonia Fowler for 32 years, but the actress has now revealed she had other ambitions away from the hit BBC soap opera
Natalie Cassidy has revealed that after she left EastEnders, she considered applying for a job as a check-out girl at Marks and Spencer. She loved the idea of being on the till and chatting to customers as it would be a world away from her life as an actress.
The former soap star said: “I actually have thought about doing a Sunday afternoon on the till at M&S. It would be brilliant. I’d have to be on till number 13 because that is my lucky number. I would love it but I don’t think you can just do one day though. I love M&S. If I wasn’t doing this acting I’d be working in Marks probably.”
The star, 42, quit the BBC soap back in April after playing Albert Square favourite Sonia Fowler for 32 years. Not surprisingly, offers have flooded in for the TV favourite who lives with her partner Marc Humphreys and their two daughters Eliza, 15, and Joanie, nine.
Her boyfriend, she says, never gets caught up in her showbiz world but whenever work opportunities come her way, she insists that he and her girls are always the priority in whatever she does. She revealed: “Marc doesn’t get that involved with my stuff to be honest. He will go ‘That’s your stuff. I am really proud that you get on with that’. We work like Yin and Yang. If he was 100 miles an hour like me it just would not work so he is Mr Laid Back.
“But family comes first. So me and Marc were asked to do Celebrity Race Across The World but I cannot leave the children. I mean you’re away for a month or six weeks. It is a long time. I also had something through for Channel 5. It was for a detective series but it was seven weeks in Ireland. I am not going to Ireland for seven weeks, am I? Family comes first with me.”
Among the new projects Natalie has done since EastEnders is a consumer series for Channel 4 called What’s The Big Deal? which aired in the summer. And she will be on our screens in Spring 2026 fronting a new BBC documentary series where she learns to become a carer.
She said: “It is a new BBC daytime series where I explore health and social care, the charities, the volunteers, dementia homes and palliative care. It is a really special show. And I have actually done a Level 3 NVQ in health and social care so I have been doing assignments for that and it has been really lovely.”
In addition to her TV filming commitments and running her successful podcast series Life With Nat, she has spent a good part of the past year promoting her new book called Happy Days. It is an unusual kind of autobiography where she recalls tales from lives based on the days of the week.
The star explained: “On Instagram I always say ‘Happy Monday’ or ‘Happy Tuesday’ and I thought for my book, rather than write ‘I was born in 1983 and then I did this and then I did that…’ I decided to research about the days of the week and where they come from and we can get into special days like Mother’s Day and Valentine’s Day and Christmas Day which I really love.
“So I started with Monday. And that came quite easily because I lost my mum on a Monday… 20th of May, I lost my mum, I will never forget that morning. But I also had my first proper date with Mark on a Monday. So I thought that is lovely because there is something sad but also something joyous on that day so I can talk about Monday and link it up in different ways. It was good to find stories for every day of the week looking at different times in my life and then put them altogether.”
Natalie admits the book is a mix of joy and grief as that is what she – and millions of others – experience in their lives. She explained: “My life has not always been easy. I have been through heartache. It is hard. Sometimes I meet people of my own age and I am 42 now and they’ll say ‘I have got this going on and my mum’s coming to help me or my dad’s doing this..’ And I think ‘God you are so lucky’.
“I lost my mum when I was 19 and I lost my dad four years ago. I don’t think it matters when you lose your parents, it’s being an orphan that is really really hard. So in the book I did want to talk about grief but in a nice way. It is important to talk about grief and the people we have lost. With mum and dad gone it is really difficult but I am very lucky because what God or whoever has given me is this family and I have these nieces who are like my sisters and big brothers who are like my dad. Sometimes you make up for it in other ways. And that has made me who I am today.”
However some topics from her life, including her tumultuous relationship with former boyfriend Adam Cottrell, have remained off limits. She explained: “I have had hard times in my life but I didn’t want to do a massive thing about how awful those years were. It is my private life and some things I want to keep private out of respect for my children and it is down to them if they want to talk about it in the future. But I wanted to write a book which was appropriate for my daughters to read. That was very important to me. I just wanted them to be able to read it and feel proud of the book.”
After 32 years on the BBC soap, it’s no secret that Natalie gets recognised almost every day as ‘Sonia from EastEnders’. But she is very happy with that and would not change it for the world.
She told fans at a book signing in Somerset: “I think people fell in love with the character from the beginning. It started with the shy looking girl who played the trumpet really badly and it just stuck from then on. It’s become a memory for people. It’s become iconic and that is lovely.
“At the time I’d get white van man and workmen shouting ‘Oi Sonia? Where’s the trumpet?’ But it was all in jest and very nice. And I still get it now and it doesn’t matter if you leave EastEnders, it is always with you and I love that. I feel very honoured just to be known for those things. I mean there are people in our industry who get annoyed about being recognised but I always think ‘How can you be annoyed?’ It is an absolute honour to be known for something.”
* Natalie Cassidy: Happy Days is out now published by HarperCollins.
Source: Mirror
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