Barbara Windsor's friend journalist Jane Moore has revealed that it was Barbara who pushed for the death of Peggy Mitchell in EastEnders after her Alzheimer's diagnosis in 2014
After the shock revelation this morning of Dame Barbara Windsor's Alzheimer's diagnosis, support for the EastEnders legend has poured in.
Her friend Jane Moore, the journalist who broke the story, appeared on This Morning earlier today to discuss the news, and revealed that Babs' husband Scott Mitchell had asked for the interview.
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EastEnders Spoilers Week 20 2018
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Hayley Slater returns to Walford
Stacey Fowler's cousin Hayley will return to the Square next weeks but following her arrival she stirs up some trouble when she reveals she's planning to sell some of her belongings on the market with having a license or a pitch.We can see this is going to go down well…
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After seeing that her cousin has returned Stacey reveals to Kat Moon that she thinks Hayley is after her estranged husband Martin Fowler. When the market traders begin to turn on Hayley, Martin is quick to defend her. Later Stacey warns her cousin that she not welcome in Walford however Hayley is quick to reassure her that she doesn't want Martin, in fact she's got a boyfriend. While all this drama is going on Sonia ponders her feelings for her ex-husband and the father of her child.
Stacey continues to shut Hayley out
When Stacey and Kat leave the Slater house, Hayley goes to visit Jean for some home comforts. However, after discovering Hayley went round to their house, a furious Kat and Stacey are quick to shut down Jean when she suggests Hayley move in with them.
Martin Fowler prepares to move on to Hayley
He's still married to Stacey and Sonia seems keen on a reunion but next week EastEnders viewers will see Martin Fowler attempt to move onto his wife's cousin – Hayley.After Sonia suggests that she and Martin should go out the next day, he points out that it would be his and Stacey's wedding anniversary. He soon has a change of heart after some supportive words from Sonia and considers asking Hayley out on a date. Poor Sonia is left gutted.Later Stacey takes a chance and asks Martin out for a drink (thanks to Kat encouraging her) however she's taken back by his response and storms off.Will these two ever make up?
Martin asks Sonia out for dinner
Towards the end of the week Martin has a change of heart after seeing commotion at The Vic involving Hayley. After Bex admits she's relieved her dad didn't ask Hayley out she then hints that he should reunite with Sonia. Following his encounter with his actual wife, Martin turns to Kush for advice and it's not long before he asks Sonia out for dinner.
Martin Fowler discovers Stacey and Hayley Slater are related!
When Jean realises Stacey didn't get far in her chat with Martin she gives her a harsh reality check. It's not long before Stacey decides to go out on a whim and text Martin and after he gets even more advice from Kush he goes over to the Slater's house to have a chat.At first Stacey struggles to reveal how she's feeling however she eventually admits that she still loves him. Just as sparks begin to fly between the pair, Hayley walks downstairs and it's not long before Martin puts two and two together and realises they're family and that they were working together to set him up waaaay back when Stacey rang the police.Eek!
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A furious Martin leaves and joins Sonia for their meal and Stacey is left devastated. Poor Martin is still fuming about what Stacey and Hayley did and things get even worse after Stacey tries to apologise to her husband but gets nowhere. It's not long before Martin seeks advice from Kush AGAIN (yes, really) and decides to have a chat to Sonia about them reuniting. While the rest of the square are preparing for the Royal Wedding, Stacey struggles to be around her husband and rushes off. Is this really the end for Stacey and Martin? And is this the beginning of Martin and Sonia?
Stuart Highway causes drama in the Carters marriage
Mick Carter's old-time pal Stuart is on the square and as the pair catch up and channel their younger selves by getting drunk, Halfway begins to feel uncomfortable. Later Halfway tells his older brother that he's been lying to Mick but after Stuart suggests he leave The Vic because Mick won't be impressed when he finds out he's been lied to, the landlord interrupts their conversation and suggests they all head on over to The Vic.Eek!
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On their way over to the pub Stuart bumps into Hayley and invites her to join them. As things begin to get out of hand a drunk Mick puts an end to the night but is stopped by Halfway who has a confession – what has he been lying about?
EastEnders Spoilers
Later Mick falls asleep and it appears that Stuart isn't as innocent as he seems when he tells Hayley Slater to get into bed with Mick so he gets in trouble with Linda!
EastEnders Spoilers
When Linda gets back from her mum Elaine's she's livid when she finds her husband in bed with Hayley. She later chucks the Slater family member out and tells he to not return. While Mick insists nothing happened between them, Linda is quick to blame Stuart's influence and says he needs to leave.
EastEnders Spoilers
Later when Mick talks to his long-term pal he quickly puts two and two together and realises Stuart set him up.
EastEnders Spoilers
Things get even worse when the Square prepare for the Royal Wedding festivities and over at The Vic, Linda is fuming when Stuart turns up and breaks her favourite Royal Mug.
Big Mo manages to win the rest of the residents around
Since returning to the square this year Big Mo hasn't had the best luck; she told everyone that Kat Moon was dead (even though she wasn't) and it turned out that she had money troubles and needed cash raised from her neighbours to pay off someone she'd conned.Oh Mo!
EastEnders Spoilers
However it looks like her luck is about to change. Next week The Carters plans a special night in The Queen Vic with "Suzie the Psychic" but are left annoyed when they find out it's actually Mo. She actually manages to convince the Carters to give her a chance and despite everyone else being furious at first when the figure out Mo's the psychic, they all soon have a change of heart when she actually predicts Patrick Trueman's return and it really happens.Following his return, Patrick has other things on his mind and rushes over to see Ted Murray…
Shakil gets a huge opportunity
Next week Keegan Baker and Shakil Kazemi plan to use Kush's flat to impress some girls they've met, unfortunately Carmel is onto their plans and turns up at the flat…
EastEnders Spoilers
Carmel later receives a phone call from her son's teacher who wants to meet them both tomorrow. Following their meet up, she's surprised when Shakil's teacher reveals one of his friends run a summer school for talented students in "electronic music" and suggests that Shakil should apply.
EastEnders Spoilers
When Carmel discovers her son doesn't want to go to the summer school she visits Karen Taylor and hints that it's Keegan's fault, leaving her furious…
EastEnders Spoilers
Being a great friend, Keegan manages to encourage Shakil to apply to the school.Cute!However, the exciting news comes at a bittersweet time as it was recently revealed that Shakil will be murdered in an upcoming knife attack.
EastEnders Spoilers
Phil Mitchell continues to pressure Robbie Jackson to get information on Max and Rainie Branning at the car lot. It's not long before Rainie spots the pair and demands the car lot keys back from Robbie after revealing she no longer trusts him.
Things get awkward between Robbie Jackson and Donna Yates
Poor Robbie begins to fear for his future following an unsettling prediction from "Suzie the Psychic" aka big Mo. After being on-edge all day, Sonia has to step in and give him a reality check and it's not long before she encourages him to go and impress Donna Yates.Robbie soon sees an opportunity when he sees Donna and Hayley Slater coming to blows and not only goes he defend her but he calls her his girlfriend.Err, okay then.However when things end embarrassingly for Robbie, Donna storms off…
Carmel Kazemi gets revenge on Ian Beale
Ian Beale's been irritating Masood Ahmed and this week it's Carmel Kazemi's turn.It all kicks off when Kathy suggests that her son applies to be the new chair of the Walford Residents Associations. At first he's not feeling it but as soon as he discovers that Carmel's also applying he changes his mind.However, Carmel gets her own back on Ian when she discovers he held a children's party at the Community Centre to win people over for the upcoming vote. We wonder what revenge she has in store for him…
Jane told Holly Willoughby and Phillip Schofield that she had known for around two or three years after Barbara's diagnosis in 2014.
She said: "Scott was adamant he didn’t want that coming out. It was a release but he felt so guilty because he felt he couldn’t protect her anymore. She was becoming housebound.
"Whenever they went out, the public were like moths to a flame with Barbara and she loves them. He was really worried she was going to do something that might put it out there."
Scott had then asked Jane for the interview last week, revealing that he wanted to "tell people in a controlled way."
But the biggest revelation of the clip was that after receiving her diagnosis in 2014, it had been Barbara's idea to kill off Peggy Mitchell.
WATCH: Peggy Mitchell's death
Jane revealed: "She rang up the producer of EastEnders and said, 'I want you to kill off Peggy Mitchell'. He said, 'I can’t do that to such an iconic character'.
"Scott went to see him. He didn’t tell him the full story, but he said, 'Look into my eyes, she’s not coming back. Let’s do this'. They have an autocue on set but she didn’t need it."
Peggy's death is now even more poignant, having chosen to take her own life after being diagnosed with a terminal illness.
Jane added that family and friends have noticed a "deterioration", that she "sometimes repeats herself" - but stressed that she "knows who she is, her history and what she has done."
Our thoughts are with Barbara, Scott and their family at this difficult time. ❤️
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