“It all happened in a split second…” — Natalie Cassidy shares the terrifying ordeal that left her young daughter rushed to hospital with a “shattered” arm.

EastEnders icon Natalie Cassidy has recalled the terror she felt when her nine-year-old daughter had to be rushed to A&E.

The actress, 43, who made her debut as Sonia Fowler in 1993, has two daughters: Eliza, 15, from her on-off relationship with ex-partner Adam Cottrell, from whom she split for good in 2013, and youngest Joanie, whom she shares with fiancé Marc Humphreys.

Revealing the nightmare, Natalie explained that Joanie had an accident at school, slipping over just weeks after metal plates were surgically removed from the same arm following another injury.

The worried mum ‘felt like [she] was having a nervous breakdown’ when she received the dreaded call.

‘Joanie’s broken her arm again. Same arm — smashed to pieces. General anaesthetic, same operation,’ Natalie said, thwarting the family’s plans to enjoy a relaxing few days at home in Hertfordshire.

‘I’d done a little bit of work in the morning at home,’ she continued on her podcast, Life With Nat.

‘[Marc] 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. She slipped over in the hall before doing PE. I’m speechless. It’s so traumatic.’

Natalie went on to say that Joanie had a ‘clean break’ in her arm a few years back, but when she broke it again, surgeons had to ‘put all the metal work in’.

‘And then eight weeks ago, she went under general anaesthetic, had it all out – and has done it again.’

Speaking candidly, the screen star admitted: ‘I felt I was going to have a nervous breakdown, actually. 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.’

Natalie has been considering whether her daughter has ‘some sort of deficiency’ that could be causing the frequent bone breaks.

‘But she’s had full blood tests, and everything is in range,’ she shared. ‘It’s absolutely perfect. The consultant actually said, “I do think it’s just really bad luck”.’

Joanie’s hospital dash came during the scorching heatwave, which saw parts of the country exceed 37C in the hottest June days on record.

‘The hospital was quite warm for the few days we were in there,’ Natalie said, praising the staff for ‘not moaning’ but rather keeping morale up.

‘They’re laughing, they’re joking. Just wonderful, wonderful people. We were so well looked after again.’

‘It’s like a little trip now,’ she quipped, joking that visiting the hospital was like ‘being in a hotel’ and that the anaesthetist ‘actually knew’ Joanie from memory.

However, the medical emergency does present issues for their upcoming getaway, as Joanie will need to be medically cleared before she can fly with a cast on, as well as a waterproof cover for swimming.

Natalie, who has played Sonia in spells for over 30 years, left the BBC soap in 2025 after nine years back in the role.

Her exit storyline last April saw her character leave Walford for sunny Bali with her daughters Rebecca ‘Bex’ Fowler (Jasmine Armfield) and baby Julia Fowler, plus her sister Bianca Jackson (Patsy Palmer).

Since then, she’s been focusing on other projects, including her podcast and her BBC documentary, Natalie Cassidy: Caring Together, in which she trains as a professional carer.

Chatting about departing Albert Square for the third time, Natalie recently told the Please Keep Me Anonymous podcast: ‘I was 41, and I thought, “No, I’ve got to get out of here.”

‘It’s was weird, really, because the pattern was I started when I was 10, I did 12 years, had eight years off, and I went back for 12, and I left.’

Still, she’s not ruling out a fourth go… albeit in 2033.

‘So maybe I will go back in eight years; you never know, do you?’