Soap Opera Star Hospitalized After Household Accident

Former EastEnders star Melissa Suffield went to the hospital over the weekend after she slipped on one of her son River’s toys and hurt her ankle. Thankfully, the 29-year-old actress did not suffer any serious injury, but her ankle is swollen. Since welcoming River in 2020 with her husband Robert Brendan, Suffield has shared body-positivity posts on Instagram, calling herself an advocate for body neutrality.

“On my way to the hospital, hopefully, I’ll be one of the first ones in and I can get back home before it gets too hot,” Suffield wrote in a since-expired Instagram Story post, reports The Sun. “Also hopefully, it’s not anything too serious. I’m able to bear a small amount of weight on it this morning but it’s very painful.” Suffield said she could not move her foot in “a couple of directions” and felt it was important to get it checked out.

Suffield later shared a picture of her X-ray report, adding that doctors found no bone injury. Her doctors advised her to follow “RICE,” or rest, ice, compression, and elevation, and try to keep it cool during the extreme heat wave the U.K. is experiencing. Her ankle is still “MEGA swollen,” she wrote. Her doctor told her she could be able to walk normally within four weeks.

“I’m like, um, I have 12 days until I’m solo again. So healing thoughts, please! So healing thoughts please,” she continued. “Also for all their uselessness on a weekend, I was checked in, seen by minor injuries, x-rayed, seen by minor injuries again, and discharged in under an hour. Excellent work all around. Time to get in the paddling pool and keep that ankle cool!”

Suffield is best known for playing Lucy Beale in over 300 episodes of the BBC One soap opera EastEnders between 2004 and 2010. Although she is no longer regularly acting, she has a following on Instagram thanks to her body positivity posts. She recently launched her own clothing store, River and Six. In a July 1 post that attracted attention from media outlets, Suffield wrote about “belly overhang” and how it was nothing to be ashamed of.

“A reminder that belly overhang affects LOADS of us, pregnancy-related or not. It affects people of all shapes and sizes, sometimes it’s fat, sometimes it’s skin, sometimes it’s as a result of a scar, sometimes it’s temporary, ALWAYS it’s beautiful,” Suffield wrote. “It doesn’t have to be something you’re ashamed of, it doesn’t necessarily mean you’re unhealthy, and you’re most certainly not alone.”

In a July 7 post that resonated with Instagram users, Suffield wrote that there was “no time limit” for jumping “back to normal” after having a baby as she showed off her body two years after River was born. “You’ll always be postpartum, it doesn’t just go away after 3 months,” she wrote for Mother & Baby. “You’ll always be ‘post birth’, and it will always have affected you, positively or negatively, emotionally, mentally, and/or physically. So let’s start being kinder to ourselves, taking the pressure off a bit, and relaxing.”