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'It's emotional but it's time to have a change'

OK! UK

May 08, 2025

EastEnders favourite Natalie Cassidy waves goodbye to her role as Sonia Fowler to embrace other opportunities – and perhaps finally turn her attention to wedding planning with fiancé Marc Humphreys

'It's emotional but it's time to have a change'

She's been engaged to her fiancé Marc Humphreys for 10 years but with a busy acting career, Natalie Cassidy has never found time to plan their dream wedding.

The couple live in Hertfordshire with her daughters Joanie, eight, and Eliza, 14 - not far from the EastEnders studio where she's been filming scenes as Sonia Fowler since she was 10 years old.

But now that she's bid farewell to the role that made her famous, Natalie hopes to at least start thinking about the wedding. She laughs, “That would be nice wouldn't it? It's a bit of a nightmare. We're always busy and we always say yes to things, but it'd be nice to think about it.”

While she remains deeply in love with Marc, who was a camera supervisor on the soap's live 40th anniversary episode, Natalie admits she's still career focused and would prioritise new work opportunities over planning the big day. Having said that, she explains, “It’s important. If you’re getting good opportunities you can’t turn them down, but I feel like you can just balance the diary a little bit more because EastEnders is such a huge machine you have to plan around.”

Sonia is still on-screen preparing for the funeral of her ex-husband Martin Fowler (James Bye). However, Natalie has already left the set following an emotional leaving party.

“I've only been gone a few weeks so it feels a bit like I'm still on holiday but it's just really nice,” says Natalie. “It's going to be a good change.”

When she left, Natalie's friends on the show gave her a special gift to commemorate one of Sonia's iconic storylines - learning the trumpet as a teenager.

“I had a really nice leaving do,” says Natalie.

“Everybody was there, all the crew, costume, make-up and friends that I've known for a very long time. We had a really nice evening and they gave me a lovely little necklace with a trumpet on.”