EastEnders icons Natalie Cassidy and Jack Ryder who played Sonia and Jamie join forces 24 years on from their tragic teen romance

They played star-crossed lovers Sonia and Jamie in EastEnders 24 years ago, until his character was run over and killed on Christmas Day back in 2002.

And actors Natalie Cassidy, 43, and Jack Ryder, 45, have reunited following their tragic teen romance for a National Rail campaign called Proper Catch-Up Carriage which encourages people to put down their phones and have a good conversation. 

Appearing on Good Morning Britain on Wednesday, the duo said that they hadn't seen one another since filming their final scenes on the soap, until this campaign. 

Natalie said that while they would send the odd message or heart emoji to one another, they hadn't seen each other physically in all this time. 

She said: 'When we saw each other on the train platform [for the campaign], we just didn't let go of one another. It was like coming home. We are like brother and sister.

'It's been 24 years but I am so pleased we've seen each other and we won't leave it that long again.' 

It seems the pair were both going through their own tough times when they filmed their final scenes. 

Natalie said: 'I had lost my mum in May 2022 and we filmed in October of that year, so I found the storyline really painful. I channelled a lot of my grief into it. 

And in an interview with The Sun, Jack said he left the soap at the height of his fame aged 21 because it all got too much for him. 

'I just couldn't go anywhere,' he said. 'I was getting so much attention and stuff - there was such a big impact in that sense.

'It was hard and a whirlwind. It was a mad thing and I didn't really align with it.'

At the time the pair were so famous, they were asked to leave McDonald's in Bluewater, because they didn't have enough security in there. 

Jack would top many a teen magazine's 'most fancied list', got mobbed when he went out and even had a stalker. 

He went on to marry Kym Marsh of Hear'Say fame in August 2002 meaning that while he had bowed out of the limelight professionally, his personal life arguably made him even more famous. 

The couple separated six years later and Jack now has a partner Ella and daughter Marnie, five. 

Natalie is with long-term love, BBC cameraman Marc Humphrey. They share a daughter named Joanie, who was born in 2016. She also has a daughter, Eliza, from a previous relationship. 

Their own lives have been a little rosier than those they played in the BBC soap. 

Sixteen million people tuned in as Sonia gave birth to a girl when she was aged 15, called Chloe, without realising she had been pregnant. 

The father was Martin Fowler, who she had a one-night stand with before dating Jamie and she eventually gave the baby up for adoption.

But Jamie got run over and accidentally killed by Martin outside Walford East Tube station moments after buying Sonia an engagement ring. 

He said his family decided not to watch the show when it aired saying: 'it would have been a bit dark and a bit weird.'