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A former EastEnders star has revealed they were rushed to hospital after filming scenes for the BBC soap’s live episode in a candid health update. The popular programme celebrated its 40th anniversary back in February with one of its biggest set pieces of all time. For those who don’t recall, Cindy Beale pushed Ian Beale onto a road, causing Reiss Colwell to crash his car into the Queen Vic. With the famous pub holding Billy and Honey Mitchell’s wedding, viewers were left wondering who was going to die after the crash caused a massive explosion. Reiss was the first person to die after getting crushed by a bathtub as he tried to persuade his former partner Sonia Fowler , who was giving birth to their daughter, that he wasn’t evil. In an hour-long episode which also saw Antina Dobson’s Angie Watts appear as a ghost, the night ended with Martin Fowler being crushed by a steam beam. The anniversary week concluded with a special live episode, which saw Martin dying in his partner Stacey Slater’s arms after confessing he loved her. On top of this, Sonia gave birth to her daughter Hope, thanks to help from her sister Bianca Jackson and close friend Lauren Branning. Several months after the anniversary week, Sonia actress Natalie Cassidy left Walford after three decades of playing the fan favourite on and off. Appearing on Katherine Ryan's What's My Age Again? podcast several months on from her exit, Natalie revealed that she sustained a fracture to her sternum while rehearsing for her labour scene. “I was straining when I was acting out giving birth, and I did it live for EastEnders Live. It was an episode. I had to give birth live. “So there was a lot of nerves, and a couple of days before that, I went for it, really went for it, and my sternum popped out. Not out of the skin, but out,” she said. Natalie , who was soon taken to hospital, continued: “And I carried on with the rehearsal, carried it all on, and I went to the hospital, and I fractured my sternum." Recalling what her doctor said to her, she said he asked if she ‘checked her bones’ as the injuries were like ones that would be sustained in a ‘car accident’. A stunned Katherine noted to the actress, who recently appeared on ITV ’s Cooking with the Stats: "You acted yourself a broken bone!". Natalie replied: “I did, yeah. I take all the osteoporosis stuff because I'm worried about my bone density a little bit."
