Samantha Womack's 'Enders storyline 'irrelevant'

Samantha Womack's tragic 'EastEnders' storyline paled into insignificance when she spent a week living in a Nairobi slum.

The 38-year-old actress - whose alter-ego Ronnie Branning was involved in the BBC One soap's controversial baby swap storyline - explained travelling to Africa's largest slum Kibera as part of a new two-part documentary 'Famous, Rich and in the Slums' for Comic Relief made her realise her woes were "nonsense".

After the shocking 'EastEnders' scenes aired over the New Year period, Samantha faced a backlash from strangers in the supermarket, but she admits she now realises how unimportant it was.

She told Reader's Digest magazine: "The things I would normally have got terribly upset about are irrelevant. You can just go, 'What a bunch of nonsense', with everything. The arguments in the supermarket, all that."

However, Samantha admitted when she was embarking on the Kibera challenge - which hopes to raise awareness for Comic Relief - she was "sceptical" as to whether she and the other celebrity participants, Reggie Yates, Angela Rippon and Lenny Henry, would actually be left in the slum.

She added: "I have to say, I was sceptical. I thought they weren't really going to leave us, but they did.

"We had exactly what somebody would have if they were coming to Kibera looking for work. And we couldn't quite believe it. We were all pretty terrified."

Read the full interview with Samantha Womack in the March issue of Reader's Digest Magazine, in shops now. 'Famous, Rich and in the Slums' is on BBC One on March 3, 9pm and March 10, 9pm.