EastEnders actress Louisa Lytton, who recently announced her first pregnancy, has spoken out about struggling to film miscarriage scenes while pregnant herself.
Lytton’s character, Ruby Allen, was diagnosed with endometriosis storyline, and later suffered a miscarraige due to the condition.
The actress said it was “difficult” to switch off from work as the fears of her character were the same as her own in early pregnancy.
She went on: “It was weird, because naturally that was always at the forefront of my mind, so it was quite hard to take myself away from my storyline and be at home and enjoy being pregnant”.
“It became difficult to differentiate between work and home in my head. I hadn’t had the reassurance of a scan, so at times I was almost trying to protect myself by acting like it wasn’t really happening. I think it’s natural to have those worries in the first 12 weeks, but the storyline heightened how I would have been feeling anyway”.
She explained why she felt the need to tell EastEnders’ producers that she was pregnant early on. “I had to tell, because I didn’t want to have any moments of panic on set and having people not understanding why. I also didn’t want them to find out and change where they were going with the storyline just because of my own situation”.
However Lytton emphasised that she felt that “Covering endometriosis felt really important, so I told them early on that it had my full support and that I wanted to continue with it”.
“My cousin and some of my close friends have the condition and have all been affected in different ways, so I felt quite protective of [the story line]. As the scripts have come in, I’ve been constantly questioning stuff and making sure that we’re portraying it in the right light and making it as real as possible”.
“My cousin has had to take time off work because there are days she can’t get out of bed – it’s so painful and just takes over”.
What is endometriosis?
Endometriosis is a condition where tissue similar to the lining of the womb starts to grow in other places, such as the ovaries and fallopian tubes. It can affect women of any age.
One of the main complications of endometriosis is difficulty getting pregnant or not being able to get pregnant.
A spokesperson for Right To Life UK, Catherine Robinson, said: “It is wonderful that Louisa was able to pull through the difficulties of her personal emotions to portray such an important story. We wish her and her family the best of luck with her pregnancy”.
