EastEnders star Balvinder Sopal on Suki's "toxic" marriage to evil Nish

In recent scenes, Sopal's character Suki was manipulated into renewing her promise to controlling husband Nish (Navin Chowdhry), thus breaking her ex-lover Eve's (Heather Peace) heart.

Sopal told press, including RadioTimes.com: "For Suki, it’s a case of trying to lead the life that she is expected to lead and one she knows will have fewer obstacles and pain.

"It's more of a familiar path and she also doesn't want to lose her family and her children, so there's a sense of having to do it because staying means that she gets the things that are important to her."

Sopal also touched on the impact Suki's decision is having on Eve, branding Suki's actions as "quite evil".

"It feels quite evil to be doing that to Eve unfortunately, but I think [Suki] tries to prove to herself that Eve isn't what she wants or what she should have," the actor continued.

Suki's sense of duty seems to prevail after her public announcement at The Vic, though Sopal assures fans her character would love to find an easy way to flee her marriage.

"There's a sense of not wanting to back out of a promise she's made to herself, I suppose. Put it this way, she would be happy if it wasn't happening," she said.

For his part, Nish isn't doing much to make his wife commit to him. As fans recall, he went as far as killing a man because he suspected Suki was having an affair with him.

"There is no love there between Suki and Nish, I think that died a long time ago when she saw him for who he really was," Sopal confirmed. "He killed someone because he thought Suki was having an affair with them, so you see the person for who they really are.

"His love is toxic – it's not an all-encompassing, open, free-flowing love where Suki can be who she wants to be, it's a love that comes with conditions, control and [is] driven by his needs, wants and passions," she also said, adding that "Suki is of course in love with somebody else".

And given that Nish has killed before, it makes sense for Suki to try and spare her true love Eve any nasty consequences from their affair, no matter how much she loves her.

"I guess [Suki]'s trying to protect Eve too when she understands their life together won't be happy, so she's trying to cut Eve free and let her go while trying to prove to herself this is the right thing to do for everybody," Sopal added.

But will Suki really be able to look Nish in the eye and renew her vows?

If you have been affected by any of the issues raised in this article, you can visit Refuge for more information and contact 0808 2000 247 for support. Help can also be found at The Hideout.

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• Who was Jamie Mitchell in EastEnders and what happened to him?

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