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Natalie: ‘I want to be a size 10 bride!’

New mum natalie Cassidy has admitted she’s working hard to get in shape for her summer wedding.

The size 14 ex-EastEnders actress, 27, has told pals she’s determined to shed her post-pregnancy tum – and is using her daughter Eliza, five months, as a “workout buddy.”

She’s been spotted walking briskly in her local park in exercise gear while pushing Eliza’s pram. And pals say she’s keen to slim to a size 10 – because she’s worried she’s not “sexy” enough for her fiancé Adam Cottrell, 31.

A pal says: “Nat says she’s determined to get back to a size 10. She suffers from bloating and water retention and wants to ditch around half a stone. She’s working out by speed walking, cutting down on carbs and running up and down the stairs.

“Ever since Eliza was born, Nat’s been constantly tired and not feeling her best. She spends so much time at home with the baby and is often in tracksuits with no make-up on.

“By the time Adam gets home from work, she’s too tired to make an effort and feels like she’s caught between caring for Eliza and keeping the spark alive between her and Adam.”

Friends say Natalie has been following the Weight Watchers diet, but the weight isn’t falling off as quickly as she’d like.

A source adds: “Nat said she hasn’t bought any new clothes for months and her wardrobe could really do with a revamp. She wants to buy some sexy lingerie and some nice ‘going out’ clothes to wow Adam with.

“She doesn’t have an ideal weight, just an ideal dress size. She doesn’t want to look bony or turn into a ‘lollipop head’ – she just wants to feel beautiful. When she walks down the aisle. She wants jaws to hit the floor.”

Natalie lost 4st in 2008 and released a fitness DVD, Now & Then. But she went back to a size 16 later the same year.

She also confessed in 2009 that she’d secretly used laxatives to help keep off the pounds.

Earlier this month, she told the Loose Women panel she “didn’t care” about losing weight, saying: “I did what I did.

I’ve been a really big 16, I’ve been down to an 8, and now I’m a 14 and I’m happy. Becoming a mum, your priorities change. I haven’t got time to worry about it any more, as I’m looking after Eliza.

“I eat what I want when I want and I’m chilled out about it now. I did that [the DVD] for a job – a bit of wonga. Go and get fit, do whatever, but it wasn’t for me.”

But her friends say that Natalie, who’s been with fiancé Adam for 18 months, is secretly determined to fulfil her goal of looking slim on her big day, though she hasn’t yet set a date.

“She wants a traditional white wedding in a country setting, with a manor house and confetti – the lot,” the pal reveals. “She’s even talked about making her EastEnders co-star Barbara Windsor her maid of honour. Though she would have loved to have had Wendy Richard do it – they were so close’.”

Natalie was devastated in 2009 when co-star Wendy, 65, died from cancer. She regarded her as a “second mum” after losing her real mum to cancer in 2002, and said in 2009 that losing Wendy put her “on the brink of a breakdown.”

And she’s told pals she wants to make both women proud with a “day to remember.”

The pal says: “She’s not doing the meringue look – she wants to wow Adam in something sleek and sexy. But she has her work cut out because the dress she wants is very fitted. But Nat hates the word ‘diet’ – she calls it ‘do it’ instead to motivate herself.

“She wants a proper knees-up for her wedding – with beer-battered cod and chips with curry sauce for the main course. She prefers that to posh food that nobody eats!”

And the friend says that Natalie – who is believed to be planning to write a book to help “normal” women cope with pregnancy – is in talks with a glossy magazine hoping to cover her wedding, and may accept a deal so she can splash out on her dream day.

The pal says: “Nat says it isn’t about getting her face in a glossy mag, but being in a position where she can afford the wedding she wants.”

By Victoria Richards