Natalie Cassidy has revealed her daughter Joanie was rushed to A&E after breaking her arm again.
The actor, best known for playing Sonia Fowler on EastEnders, explained that the nine-year-old “smashed her arm into pieces” at school - two years after she’d had surgery on the same arm following another injury.
Cassidy said it was “traumatic” seeing her youngest child in that condition and admitted she is “not in a good place”.
“Joanie’s broken her arm again. Same arm – smashed to pieces. General anaesthetic, same operation,” she said on her Life With Nat podcast.
“I’d done a little bit of work in the morning at home. [Her fiance Marc Humphreys] went outside, put the paddling pool up, cut all the grass – thinking we’re going to have a few days, like a mini holiday, at home.
“And then the phone rang. [Joanie] had slipped over in the hall before doing PE. I’m speechless. It’s so traumatic.”
Cassidy went on: “I felt I was going to have a nervous breakdown. I’m being really honest here. I really fell to pieces.
“I was not in a good place. Just her little body – and the medication and the trauma of it all.”
The soap star explained that Joanie was tested for “some sort of deficiency” which may explain why she keeps breaking bones, but nothing has been found.
“She’s had full blood tests, and everything is in range,” she said.
“It’s absolutely perfect. The consultant actually said, ‘I do think it’s just really bad luck’.”
Joanie previously broke her arm in 2024 while doing a cartwheel in a playground during a family holiday in Greece. Cassidy also has another daughter, 15-year-old Eliza, from a former relationship.
In February, the actor threw her support behind the proposed ban on social media usage for under 16s, which the government officially announced last month. The ban is planned to take effect next spring.
She backed a campaign called Big Tech’s Little Victims, an algorithm experiment to show what social media platforms show children who sign up at the current minimum user age of 13.
Four fake profiles set up by the campaign were served hundreds of pieces of concerning content in just a week.
“I cannot tell you how shocking it is,” Cassidy said. “They are looking at sexualised content, racism, violence, misogyny, extreme dieting going towards anorexia, self-harming and even suicidal idealisation. It’s incredible.”
The TV star, who joined EastEnders at the age of 10, announced her departure from the soap in 2025.
Cassidy admitted she felt “free” leaving the show behind after more than 30 years of playing Sonia on and off.
“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 Prima last year.
“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.”
