'Was out of order' EastEnders' Natalie Cassidy hits out at Strictly for 'fat-shaming' her

express.co.uk:

EastEnders star Natalie Cassidy has claimed that she was "fat-shamed" when she appeared on popular dance show, Strictly Come Dancing in 2009.

In a new interview, the actress, 38, who plays Sonia Fowler in the BBC soap, recalled that she was told to pick up her partner Vincent Simone, before branding it "out of order".The star made the comments while speaking to Rylan Clark-Neal on his podcast, Ry-Union.Natalie joined the seventh series of Strictly in 2009 and was partnered with Italian pro Vincent.Reflecting on her time on the show, Natalie claims that during one rehearsal, she was asked to lift her partner, a move which is traditionally performed by the man in a ballroom dance pairing, branding it "out of order".At the time, Natalie said: "I was about four stone bigger than I am now."Vincenzo was quite little."And I remember one week, it was like, 'Oh we're going to do this dance, but you're going to pick up Vincent'," she added.Natalie went on to claim that it would be classed as "unacceptable today".She said: "And I think about it now and I think, 'Oh, that was out of order.

It was a bit out of order to me. You couldn't do that now.'"The duo went on to finish in fifth place on the show.Despite the "out of order" move, Natalie explained that she loved her time on the popular BBC dance show.She said: "Strictly was the best job outside of EastEnders."I mean, job?

That's a laugh! Getting up, dancing all day, learning how to dance."She also added that she and Vincent had a close-knit relationship which saw them laughing both in rehearsals and on stage.Natalie continued: "I had lovely Vincenzo next to me.