Executive producer Matthew Robinson reintroduced the character in 1999 as a businesswoman and a love interest for Barry Evans (Shaun Williamson).

She was highly critical of Natalie and blamed her for the breakdown of her marriage (the unwanted pregnancy had ruined her figure and singing career, causing her husband to leave her).

When Barry's half-brother, Nathan Williams (Doug Allen), moves in briefly, he makes Natalie an unsuspecting pawn in his vendetta.

On the night of her 26th birthday, while Barry plans a secret party in The Queen Victoria public house, Natalie prepares to leave.

This eventually leads to Barry's untimely demise, when Janine pushes him from a cliff and leaves him to die, the day after they marry on New Year's Eve 2003 in Scotland.

Janine is questioned but released due to lack of evidence; she promptly tells Natalie that Paul conspired with her from the start and gloats about getting away with murder.

Natalie makes peace with Paul, holding a ceremony for Barry by scattering his ashes under a tree planted in his memory.

[3] Early on in her narrative, Natalie was shown to be an insecure and lonely individual – a "gloomy kid" from a broken family with an uncaring, criticising and resentful mother, Andrea (Cindy O'Callaghan).

Similarly, she was unsuccessful in relationships, falling for unsuitable men who ended up hurting her and settling in a "secure but uninspired" marriage to a mismatched, immature partner, Barry Evans.

[3][4] She was frequently shown to feel constrained and trapped by her marriage and motherhood, her initial reluctance to be a mother stemming from her own unhappy childhood.

The storyline reached its climax on 16 Feb 1995; 17.0 million viewers tuned in to witness Bianca discovering that her boyfriend was sleeping with her best friend.

[7] Off-screen, actress Lucy Speed had decided to leave the serial after playing Natalie for a year, as she was reportedly "freaked out" by the media attention she was receiving from being in such a high-profile show.

She mentioned this to her former castmate Ross Kemp, who played Grant Mitchell in the serial and he initiated contact between Speed and then executive-producer, Matthew Robinson.

[2] The biggest storyline involving Barry and Natalie in 1999 was their joint double wedding with the characters Ian Beale and Melanie Healy (Adam Woodyatt and Tamzin Outhwaite), the lead up to which included a hen/stag night celebration episode, which was filmed on-location in Amsterdam, the Netherlands.

The episode evoked criticism by the Broadcasting Standards Commission for its inclusion of "almost relentless drunken and promiscuous behaviour, sexual innuendo and drug-taking, before the watershed", which included Natalie having to acquire three love bites from strangers.

Her family background is so awful she doesn't want to make the same mistake her mother made, but feels the odds are stacked against her and Barry.

"[13] Viewers saw a "devastated Barry" react badly to the news, in a special extended four-hander episode (written by Christopher Reason and directed by Clive Arnold); the episode had a maternal theme, with the action flitting between Barry and Natalie's saga and scenes between Steve Owen (Martin Kemp) and his dying mother, which included revelations of child abuse and incest.

The scenes between Natalie and Barry have been described as some of "the most powerful moments in soap, with the couple battling to decide the fate of their unborn baby".

[13] The character was seen to give birth to son Jack in January 2002, and her decision to keep her baby in spite of her initial determination to abort was mocked by Susannah Nightingale, a columnist for the Cambridge University Students' Union (CUSU) women's campaign.

Men, even such sorry specimens as the perpetually pouting Barry, really are jolly decent to put up with these female follies and calmly guide their gals in the right direction".

[15] Nightingale suggested that the storyline "echoed" the assertion that a woman cannot be trusted to make her own decision about abortion, which she describes as profoundly undermining and a "subtle" reinforcement of an "underlying implication" that women should be punished for exercising their legal right.

[15] She comments, "I am confused by the writers' unswerving insistence on her absolute certainty that abortion was the right choice for her, until the very last moment – such portrayals smack of her finally 'seeing the light'.

[15] Natalie and Barry's marriage sours towards the end of 2002, when she is momentarily tempted by the charms of his scheming half-brother Nathan (Doug Allen).

[16] On-screen the character's plans to abscond with Ricky and her son (on the night of her surprise birthday party) were thwarted by Barry's discovery of the affair – leading to a public confrontation between the three protagonists.

The storyline signified the end of the characters' three-year marriage and in a final plot twist Natalie opts to finish with Ricky and leave Walford alone, having discovered that he has recently slept with his ex-wife, Sam.

[20] After discovering the truth from Paul, Natalie realises she is powerless to bring Janine to justice, and decides to leave the Square in March 2004.

The programme looked back over 10 years of the character's time in the soap and featured interviews from Speed and tributes from her former castmates Shaun Williamson (Barry), Charlie Brooks (Janine), Natalie Cassidy (Sonia Jackson), Gary Beadle (Paul), Pam St. Clement (Pat) and Tony Caunter (Roy).

[22] In 1995, Chris Barker carried out television research on post-transmission perspectives of teenage viewers of EastEnders, using the character Natalie as one of the focus points.

He discovered that the participants were both active and implicit in the reproduction of ideology about family relationships and gender, identified via discussion of the friendship between Bianca and Natalie.

[25] In 2002 the character was featured in a spoof of the Michael Jackson hit video, Thriller, which was made as part of the annual fund-raising event, Children in Need.