EastEnders star Nina Wadia has revealed filming had to be stopped after she broke down in hysterics filming emotional scenes for her latest storyline.

The soap star's character Zainab Khan this week reveals to her family how she sent her abusive husband Yusef to his death in the burning B&B at Christmas. And Nina told ITV's Lorraine that the deep and dark emotions became so much for her, she couldn't hold back.

Nina confessed: "We were filming mid-January, and I suddenly had a massive breakdown in front of everyone! It was really embarrassing. I just cried in the middle of a scene, I just absolutely burst into tears.

"It was Zainab talking about what had happened, and then I just uncontrollably couldn't stop and it was horrible. Luckily Nitin [Ganatra] and Marc [Elliott who play her ex-husband Masood Ahmed and son Syed respectively], were there. They literally just took me aside, sat with me and calmed me down. I apologised to the director, because I physically couldn't stop crying."

Nina said she hopes that Zainab and Masood can find happiness together after all the pain they've been through recently.

She said: "Zainab's been living with this for a few months now and she finally can't take it any more. So it all comes out, and it comes out in the worst way possible, in front of everyone. I think she probably would have liked to confess to Masood privately first, but she didn't get a chance.

"It all has gone very wrong for her since Christmas. But I'm hoping, I'm really hoping, at some point they get her and Masood back together."