Nadia Sawalha opens up on EastEnders, anxiety and trolls on Miss Leigh Ding Fortunes

Television personality Nadia Sawalha is the latest familiar face to sit down at the tarot table on Miss Leigh Ding Fortunes, the celebrity podcast hosted by drag queen and tarot reader Miss Leigh Ding. The episode is available today, Monday 26 October, on podcast platforms.

Sawalha is best known as a long-standing panellist on ITV’s Loose Women, where she is known for her warmth, quick wit and candid approach to life. In the episode, Miss Leigh Ding turns the cards to explore her past, present and future, talking through a career that spans television, acting and presenting.

From nursing to the stage

Sawalha says she never set out to be an actress. “All I ever wanted to be was a nurse… I had really, really wanted to be a nurse,” she says. “I’m a natural empath. I always like looking after people, so I naturally thought I wanted to be a nurse.”

That changed after her first school play. “I came off stage of my first school play, and my mum said that was so good, you made me laugh so much, and in that instant that was it, I was going to be an actress. It was my mum’s validation.”

Landing EastEnders

She also looks back on winning the part of Annie Palmer in EastEnders. “I got an audition for Annie Palmer. I still can’t quite believe it, I did it,” she says.

She describes an unusual audition process, at least back then, that started with a long interview before the audition itself. “They ask you things like would you be able to handle the level of fame, would you be able to do this, that, etc,” she says. “It was so crazy then, they had like 20 million viewers back then.”

Anxiety and trolls

Sawalha is open about how she felt once she was in the role. “I was so anxious, the anxiety was horrendous. It’s unlike anything else, because you don’t get any real double takes. It’s just literally remember your lines and don’t bump into the furniture.”

Online abuse, she says, has little power over her. “I always say there is no troll that can get to me because I had so many trolls in my own head, no troll has ever said anything nastier than me.”

Looking ahead, she adds: “I never think about the future, I rarely think about the past, so I make impulsive decisions and I just keep going.”

Living with purpose

Sawalha says she is in a new chapter. “I feel like for the first time, I’m living with purpose,” she says. “If someone had said to me that in my 60s I would be an activist, I would have laughed them out of the room.”

She says she wants to make a difference. “Material things never meant much to me, but even less now. I love to have fun, don’t get me wrong, but I don’t want to chase anything, apart from a total belief that the world is still filled with more good people than bad people, and I want people to know that.”

She is also positive about life beyond the screen. “I’m so grateful that we’ve had our channel for so many years. I really feel like I’ll have a much more meaningful voice than I did on television,” she says. “Television is a dying place, it really is, and it’s a silencer. I’m happy to not be on telly, and I’m happy to have a free voice.”

About the podcast

Miss Leigh Ding Fortunes is a celebrity tarot podcast where the stars get read. Each episode, Miss Leigh Ding invites a well-known guest to reflect on their journey, ambitions and relationships, and on what might lie ahead. The mix is laughter, candid conversation and unexpected revelations.

The episode featuring Nadia Sawalha is available today on podcast platforms.