Former EastEnders star Melissa Carter has opened up about her struggles and non-acceptance of living with a health condition. The 33-year-old former actress is best known for playing Lucy Beale on the BBC soap from from 2004 to 2010.

Since quitting the soap – and acting in general – the mum-of-one has reinvented herself as a self-help and health guru. Rebranded as The Confident Mama, the TV star encourages fans and followers to love their bodies.

Along the way, Melissa – who acted under the name Melissa Suffield – has revealed she was diagnosed in 2023 with a condition called Small Intestinal Bacterial Overgrowth (SIBO). The condition is caused when too many bacteria move from the large intestine to the small intestine, causing discomfort, bloating, diarrhoea, gas, and nutrient malabsorption.

This month, Melissa marked her two year anniversary of being diagnosed on the condition – and acknowledged that she does wonder what she did wrong that provoked the health issue to form. Writing in a post on Instagram, she wrote: “Today is a tough day. This day 2 years ago, me and River got sick with whatever the infection was that gave me SIBO. From the next day onwards, I was symptomatic, and I have basically been unwell ever since.

“I replay that day in my head so often. What if we hadn’t gone on the train that day. What if we hadn’t eaten out. What if we had stayed home. How different would my life look right now. I wouldn’t have lost over 3 stone against my will. I wouldn’t have spent over £20,000 searching for answers and the magic remedy that would make me feel better. I wouldn’t have been more lonely, more anxious than I’ve ever been before. I wouldn’t be worried about travelling more than a mile from my home. The very core of who I am as a person wouldn’t have been altered.”

Pivoting to a more positive outlook, she continued: “I don’t like to dwell on the past in this way because it really isn’t helpful, but on days like today, crap anniversaries, it’s really hard not to. So I’ll try and reframe it.”