BBC EastEnders star Natalie Cassidy doesn’t want daughter to act after secret reality TV stint
EastEnders' Sonia Fowler star Natalie Cassidy has admitted she doesn't want her daughter to follow in her footsteps after the 13-year-old made a secret TV appearance
Natalie Cassidy has admitted she doesn’t want her daughter to act
EastEnders star Natalie Cassidy has admitted she doesn’t want her daughter to act following her secret TV appearance.
The actress is best known for her role as Sonia Fowler in the BBC soap and has also gone on to star in Strictly Come Dancing and Celebrity Big Brother. She shares 13-year-old daughter Eliza with her ex partner Adam Cottrell and seven-year-old daughter Joanie with fiancé Marc Humphreys. Despite making a name for herself on the small screen, Natalie has shared she has other plans for her daughters.
Eldest daughter Eliza likes acting and enjoys musical theatre, just like her mum. She has even signed to an agency as Natalie shared she is “happy for her to get experience”. Yet Natalie has expressed her wish for her daughter to try out different career opportunities. She said: “As a mum, I just want her to do what I didn’t do, and that’s just to get some more stuff under her belt.
Natalie’s daughter Eliza appeared on Junior Bake Off
The actress also shares daughter Joanie with fiancé Marc
“I think it’s important to be able to do something else as well.” Speaking to OK! Magazine, Natalie said: “She’s on a little agency as we speak and if anything was to come in that’s interesting and wouldn’t take up too much time, I’m happy for her to get experience and do that. But I feel her education is important.” Yet Eliza has already had a taste for working in TV as she made a surprise appearance on Junior Bake Off last year.
Natalie had kept Eliza’s stint on the baking competition private until after she had left the show. Announcing the news to fans she shared: “This is Eliza. She was 10 and decided to enter for Junior Bake Off. I said, ‘oh Eliza, you’ll never get through, thousands apply and I don’t want you to be disappointed’. She got through. And her confidence, determination and maturity has blown me away.”
Natalie is best known for her role as Sonia on EastEnders
The actress explained she had nothing to do with Eliza’s appearance on the show and didn’t appear in the family VTs as she “didn’t want to be a part of it”. Natalie’s youngest daughter Joanie hasn’t shown an interest in acting as she enjoys art and music instead. It is not the first time Natalie has expressed how she wants her children to steer away from acting.
Speaking to The Mirror in 2015, she revealed she’d never want her own daughter to become a child soap star like her. Natalie admitted she does not regret her own career but was adamant it wouldn’t be right for Eliza, who was then four-years-old. She said: “I wouldn’t want her to do it because I don’t know what it’s like to not be recognised. It’s not a bad thing, because I’m so used to it, but I’d like her to retain her anonymity. I think it’s important. I’d like her to have that for her life, really. I don’t want her to have what I’ve had.
“As soap stars we’re statistically the most famous people in Britain. Bigger than Brad Pitt because you might watch one film a month but we’re there four times a week. I don’t think I’ve ever been on holiday and not been recognised.” Natalie joined EastEnders in 1993 when the scriptwriters brought in the rowdy Jackson family. When she left in 2007 she was 23 and desperate to try new things.
