By Jenny Garnsworthy
Copyright independent
Natalie Cassidy, known for her role as Sonia Fowler in EastEnders, says it was “freeing” to leave the soap earlier this year.
Cassidy, who departed the long-running BBC series after playing the character on and off for more than 30 years, told Prima magazine she particularly enjoyed working alongside the older cast members during her tenure, naming her late co-stars Barbara Windsor and June Brown as influences.
“I always connected with Wendy Richards and Barbara Windsor, and I would say that June Brown was my dearest, oldest friend,” she said.
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.
Cassidy, who said she would not be averse to returning for guest appearances in the soap, said she had enjoyed reinventing herself.
“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.
