Top News

star Sarah Seggari has admitted she couldn't share the conclusion of her character Rida Amaan with her own mother because she doesn't trust her not to spill the beans. Speaking exclusively to she laughed: "I have to be very good at secrets, because I have a mother who is Italian, so she loves to talk. So nobody knows anything about what's going on with it me apart from my agent and the show PR.

"So when people ask (what's going to happen in the show) I just don't reply. I just go, 'you'll see, wait and see, look what happens'. And then people could just assume, but assumptions don't mean the truth. I didn't tell her anything. She doesn't know anything. If I ever am struggling with lines, and I really need her to run some lines with me, I will block out the character and which show it is for. She can't know anything. So then she's kind of grasping in the dark at what's going on," she said.

Sarah has become a fan favourite since she first hit screens as the nurse in the long running BBC medical drama in April 2023 but with the conclusion of the latest storyline her time on the show has come to an end.

Internal Affairs has seen her struggle with the aftermath of being sexually assualted by uber surgeon Russell Whitelaw (played by Robert Bathurst).

Sarah admits the character has been hugely affected by the storyline which has seen her struggle to get justice. "She's embarrassed and has been whittled down to nothing.

"The Rida that we knew 12 weeks ago (at the beginning of the story) isn't the Rida that we're seeing now. She doesn't have any energy left to fight, and I think it's a beautiful way that the story's gone.

"Had this happened 12 weeks ago ( the events of the episode on Saturay July 7), there would have been a very different Rida outcome, but she feels like she's nothing anymore. She's the shadow of who she used to be, and that's why we are in this situation."

Sadly, although the situation on the show is played out for drama, Sarah admits it is all to common in real life as she has had many people reach out to her and share their experiences.

"I've been inundated with messages and letters from people who've gone through the same thing, which I knew (would happen), unfortunately.

"There are statistics in the world (for assaults), but yet you see people defending Russell, and you can see where the grey space is. It's not black and white, and people do see missteps that Rida took (that got her there), which is real shame. And you've only got to imagine that tenfold in readers heads, those negative thoughts are double or tripled to what I'm seeing reflected in society."