Nina Zainab EastEnders
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Nina Wadia reveals she was punched by EastEnders fan

Nina left the BBC soap in 2013

Nina Wadia, who played Zainab Masood in EastEnders, has revealed she was once punched by a fan who mistook her for her homophobic character.

Nina played Zainab for six and a half years from 2007 until 2013.

Recently the actress appeared on Rob Brydon’s podcast called Brydon &.

She revealed some scary incidents that happened with fans, including when a woman punched her in the arm, believing she was her character Zainab, who was homophobic.

Nina played Zainab in EastEnders (Credit: BBC)

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Speaking on the podcast she said: “The fans take you really to their heart. You belong to them and to the point where there’s good and bad.

“I had scary incidents coming out of the studio where I was driving out one day and this guy jumped in my car and said ‘can you sign this photo’ and I went ‘get out of my car.’ He was like ‘I’m not gonna hurt you can you sign this?’ and I went ‘get out of my car.'”

Nina Wadia reveals she was punched by EastEnders fan

She continued: “And they’ll tell you what they think of you and your character. It’s like they believed I was Zainab.

Nina revealed she was punched by an EastEnders fan (Credit: SplashNews.com/Brett D. Cove)

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“Like when I was playing this homophobe I had this woman in the supermarket who was really horrible to me. She actually punched me on the arm.

When I was playing this homophobe I had this woman in the supermarket who was really horrible to me.

“She had something in her arm, she punched me and went ‘my son’s gay and you’re disgusting,’ and walked off and I went ‘I’m not actually the character, my character’s a homophobe, I’m not.’

“Wouldn’t of mattered, she was convinced that that was that.”

Recently Nina competed in series 19 of Strictly Come Dancing. However she was voted out in the second week.

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EastEnders usually airs Mondays at 8.05pm, Tuesdays and Thursdays at 7.35pm and Fridays at 8.30pm on BBC One.

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Charlotte Rodrigues
Soap Contributor
Charlotte Rodrigues joined Entertainment Daily in April 2018, as Audience Engagement Executive. A huge soap fan, Charlotte then became Senior Soap Writer, delivering the latest storylines and spoilers to our followers.