Charlotte Ritchie nearly died in Bolivia.

Charlotte Ritchie

Charlotte Ritchie

The 30-year-old actress was swimming peacefully in South America until a strong current suddenly pushed her out to sea, leaving her fighting for her life.

She is quoted by The Sun newspaper's Bizarre TV column as saying: "I realised that I was suddenly far away from the shore and getting further and further away.

"I began to not have enough strength to keep swimming and I had this moment where I was like, 'Oh my God, this is it. I am going to die.' "

Luckily, a wave swooped up Charlotte and she was able to find the strength to swim back to shore.

She said: "In the end. I got caught on an extra wave and I got a big burst of adrenaline and I swam for my life and luckily made it back to the shore."

The former 'Call the Midwife' star previously revealed she left the show due to her "biggest fear" of becoming too comfortable.

Her well-loved character, nurse Barbara Hereward sadly died from septicaemia back in 2018, but the star didn't want to get "too complacent".

She said: "Barbara's had such a good journey, this feels like a good time to go before I become too complacent. That was my biggest fear - of getting so comfortable that I was taking the job for granted. I love the show, I love everyone I work with - there's no negative reason behind why I'm going."

Charlotte admitted filming the traumatic death scenes made her think about her life.

She explained: "You're representing the trauma that people have gone through. I'm not actually dying, but it doesn't stop me from having the thoughts - what would it be like? It was strange. I did have a sort of existential crisis."


Tagged in