If there's a storyline that EastEnders has kept knocking out throughout it's thirty four year history, it's the 'who's the daddy?' storyline. Not so much 'how's your father,' as 'who's your father?' When a sixteen year old Michelle Fowler got pregnant in the early days of EastEnders, viewers were on the edge of their seats as they waited to see who the father of Michelle's baby was. There were a few suspects in the frame but it turned out to be Den Watts, the father of Michelle's best friend, Sharon.
Proving that such storylines were a ratings winner, the 'who's the father' saga has been done time and time again in Albert Square. It seems that Walford is the one place in soapland where a child's paternity is often in question! In a place where Maury could dedicate an entire series of his show to dubious dads and unsure mums, Arjun Kapoor; Tiffany Butcher; Lilly Slater; George Trott; Jade Green; Ollie Carter, and Arthur Fowler are just some of Walford's tiny residents who have had viewers and/or other Albert Square residents scratching their heads as they tried to work out who the child's father was.
Well lo and behold, EastEnders' favourite storyline made a reappearance last year as Sharon Mitchell agonized over the paternity of her unborn child. A test she took proved that her undercover lover, Keanu Taylor, was the baby's father and not her husband, Phil. And this storyline took centre stage on Christmas Day 2019 when Phil discovered the truth and all hell broke loose.
We take a look at some other Walford births where a paternity test was required to determine who the child's father. All we have to say is that, judging by this list, if you're part of the Beale or Mitchell clans, you've got yourself a problem!
1. STEVEN BEALE (1989)
Steven's step-grandmother, Kathy Beale said it best after Steven's death in 2017 when everyone discovered the extent of Steven's lies.
"He was Cindy's son. Simple as that. He was born in lies... Came back in lies... Lived and died in lies..."
And she wasn't wrong. The lies started for Steven before he was even born, when his mum Cindy became pregnant after a one-night stand with Simon Wicks - the stepbrother of her fiancé, Ian Beale. Simon didn't want a bar of Cindy when she told him she was pregnant with his child, so she continued to pretend that Ian was the baby's father and went through with the wedding. Ian was besotted with his baby son Steven when he was born, but his happiness was not to last...
Realizing that he did love Cindy after all and wanting to be a dad to his son, Simon decided to claim back his family - and Cindy was only too happy to go running back into Simon's arms, leaving poor Ian devastated. Refusing to believe that Steven wasn't his son, Ian had a test done but all this did was confirm that Cindy was indeed telling the truth - for once!
So Cindy and Simon sailed off into the sunset with little Steven to make a fresh start away from the gossips of Walford. But Simon, unreliable as ever, found the demands of fatherhood to be too much and walked out on Cindy and Steven - paving the way for Cindy and Ian to be reunited (but not for long!) Unfortunately with Cindy, Ian, and Simon as parents, Steven's upbringing was far from stable and he never really felt loved by either father or that he belonged anywhere. As a result he grew up to be a very troubled young man whose brief moment of happiness came when his girlfriend Abi announced that she was expecting his baby - just moments before he died.
2. COURTNEY MITCHELL (1997)
When Tiffany Raymond discovered she was pregnant, she was confused. She didn't know if she wanted to keep the baby, or even stay with her boyfriend, Tony Hills. But there was another reason for her confusion - she didn't know if Tony was the baby's father... or one-night stand, Grant Mitchell. But when Tiffany decided to keep the baby, she pushed all doubts to the back of her mind and focused on a future with Tony - even though Grant had his suspicions that the child might be his.
But when Tiffany found Tony kissing her brother, Simon, she ran straight to Grant and told him that she had been lying all along and that the baby was indeed his. This of course was yet another lie because the truth was that Tiffany didn't know at all. Not that Grant was going to waste any time questioning it. He quickly moved Tiffany into The Vic before whisking her away on a break - where they secretly got married.
Tiffany enjoyed her new roles as wife and mother-to-be, but unfortunately trusting her new friend, Lorraine Wicks with her secret cost her dearly. Lorraine had had a fling with Grant, and although she didn't do so out of malice, it was Lorraine who told Grant that the baby might not be his. This was great news for Tony who thought he might just have a shot at fatherhood after all, but not so great for Simon, and it was disastrous for Tiffany and Grant. Tiffany was promptly thrown out of The Vic with Grant demanding a paternity test after the baby was born.
After little Courtney was born, Tiffany, Tony and Grant all had an anxious wait for the test results to come through. And in what was one of soap's worst kept secrets (the press had already let slip who the father was going to be!) Grant turned out to be Courtney's father after all. It was great news for Tiffany and the Mitchells but devastating for Tony and also for Lorraine who by then was in a relationship with Grant. But Grant insisted he didn't want his wife back - he was just happy to co-parent with her. Tiffany did eventually win her husband back but the marriage was anything but smooth sailing. Tragically little Courtney lost her mum when she was only a toddler, after Tiffany was killed in a road accident. Grant raised Courtney alone in Rio, although they now live in Portugal.
3. BOBBY BEALE (2003)
A very rare case where the 'father' knew he wasn't the father before the mother did! The third Mrs. Ian Beale, Laura, was over the moon when she discovered that she was pregnant with her much longed-for baby. Ian, not wanting to have any more kids, wasn't. But he was feeling much more than just general disappointment. He was absolutely seething! Ian had secretly had a vasectomy so he knew that he couldn't be the baby's father, and after his stepson Steven had decided that he was going to live with his biological father in New Zealand, Ian was determined that he wouldn't be raising another man's child again.
In true Ian Beale style, he plotted revenge against Laura and tricked her into signing all assets over to him, before throwing her out on Christmas Day - very conveniently forgetting how Laura had stood by him when he was declared bankrupt. That and the fact that Laura was the only woman willing to put up with him! Laura was adament that ian was the baby's father. But then she recalled a very drunken encounter with a mystery man. Viewers soon discovered who the father of her baby was - Gary Hobbs.
But in a bizarre plot twist, it was later discovered that Gary wasn't baby Bobby's dad after all...
In the Ian -Laura -Gary love triangle, there was no official paternity test to determine who Bobby's dad was. It probably didn't occur to the trio to have one as they were all so sure that Gary was Bobby's dad. But little Bobby needing a blood transfusion led to Laura discovering that Gary couldn't be Bobby's father after all as the two blood types were incompatible. Realizing that Ian was indeed the baby's father, Laura named him as the father on Bobby's birth certificate and tried to get him involved in Bobby's life but Ian wanted nothing to do with the baby. So Laura carried on pretending that Gary was Bobby's dad as she didn't want her son to grow up without a father.
However, it was after Laura's tragic death that the truth came out. And once he was over the shock, Ian wasted no time in claiming his son back from a distraught Gary. Although looking at the way Bobby's life panned out - a delinquent with anger issues who accidentally killed his sister - perhaps things would have been better had Gary been his real father!
4. AMY MITCHELL (2008)
Mitchell siblings are all about faa-mily but when it comes to partners they take things a little too far! Everyone knows about the Grant-Sharon-Phil love triangle, but the Mitchell sisters Ronnie and Roxy have also been known to enjoy the odd encounter with the other's partner... which led to uncertainty over the paternity of Roxy's daughter Amy...
When Roxy discovered she was pregnant, she knew the father could either be bad boy Sean Slater who she hadn't been seeing for very long, or Jack Branning after a drunken encounter. The problem was that Jack was Ronnie's on-off boyfriend, so Roxy figured it would be best for everyone if she said that Sean was the father. And as it happened, Sean and Roxy ended up falling in love and went on to marry before baby Amy was born. Sean was absolutely besotted with his new daughter. But Jack was beginning to have doubts and believed that there was a possibility that he might be the father and insisted on a paternity test.
And it was on Christmas Day (surprise, surprise!) that Sean discovered that he was not baby Amy's father via paternity test results planted inside a Christmas cracker by Jack's vindictive sister, Susie. And there was further heartbreak in store for both him and Ronnie when they discovered that Amy's father was none other than Jack Branning, who Ronnie had just reunited with. Hurt and angry, Sean tried to kill Roxy, Amy and himself but thankfully all three survived, and Sean soon left the Square.
Jack now raises Amy - who is a real daddy's girl - as a single parent after Roxy tragically drowned alongside her big sister on the night of Ronnie and Jack's wedding. Earlier this year viewers saw Sean Slater make a very brief return back to the Square, and seeing how he has never forgotten Amy or Roxy and still has a lot of love for them both was very touching.
5. RICKY MITCHELL (2010)
When Sam Mitchell returned to the Square in 2009, not only did she restart her feud with Bianca Butcher, but she also became romantically involved with two men in Bianca's life: her uncle, Jack Branning, and estranged husband, Ricky - who also happened to be Sam's first husband. Sam had always held a torch for Ricky and wanted them to get back together again. So Sam and Ricky got engaged again, much to Bianca's despair - but that didn't stop Sam from having a fling with Jack. And when she got pregnant, Sam had a tough time working out which one of the two men was the father.
After giving birth to a baby boy, Sam considered having him adopted. But then she realized that this baby could mean a possible reconciliation with Ricky who she was convinced was the baby's father, so Sam named the baby Richard after his 'dad'. But both men put pressure on Sam to agree to a paternity test, and eventually she did. When the results came through, Sam claimed that Ricky was Richard's father, which devastated Bianca who had just got back together with Ricky. But Bianca began to suspect that something wasn't quite right and discovered the true results for herself, forcing Sam to confess that she had in fact lied. Ronnie Mitchell, Sam's cousin and Jack's girlfriend, had got Sam to lie about Richard's true paternity. Wanting Sam and the baby out of the Square and away from Jack, Ronnie gave Sam money to leave Walford, and she did just that, moving to Portugal to live with Grant.
But six years later, Sam returned to Walford with Richard, now going by the name Ricky, in June 2016, for Peggy's funeral. What everyone didn't know was that Sam was finding motherhood tough, and was struggling to look after Ricky. Feeling that Ricky would be better off with his father, Sam abandoned her son at Jack's and left in the back of a taxi. Jack, the man, who has a penchant for women in the Mitchell family, has been raising his two kids as a single dad ever since.
Wonder what the future has in store for Sharon's baby...
Photos from YouTube
Word Cloud by Angel Noire
Hmm... they've touched upon it once again with Linda's pregnancy storyline although it would seem that Max is definitely the father and not Mick. I remember when they did the same thing with Olly and I'm so glad Mick turned out to be the dad and not Dean!
@Bailamos - Stella was nowhere near as iconic as Cindy, that's true. I still think Cindy Beale could make a return to the Square. Hey if Den Watts and Kathy Beale can... She would absolutely make Ian pay for her kids' lives turning out the way that they did and it would be great to see her doing battle with Kathy again. Just a thought, scriptwriters! ;)
Cindy was such a cow! Michelle Collins was fab in that role. Didn't think much of the character she played in Corrie though.