Lauren Branning

Lauren Branning (born 30th March 1994) is a fictional character from the BBC soap EastEnders. She first appeared on 3 July 2006 played by Madeline Duggan and returned as played by Jacqueline Jossa. Her storylines have included alcoholism, supporting her mother Tanya Branning through cervical cancer, her friendships with Lucy Beale and Whitney Dean, a incestuous relationship with her cousin Joey Branning, and an affair with married alcoholic Jake Stone.

The eldest child and daughter of Max Branning and Tanya Cross, conceived during their affair in the early 1990s, Lauren moves to Walford with her parents and younger sister Abi in July 2006. In 2007, Lauren uncovers an affair between her father and half-brother Bradley 's fiancée, Stacey Slater after accidentally filming them kissing on her video camera. Lauren burns the footage onto a DVD, which is played on Christmas Day, exposing Max and Stacey 's affair to the Branning's, and resulting in the breakdown of Lauren's parents' marriage. Initially romantically involved with Peter Beale, her best friend Lucy Beale's twin brother, Max disapproves of their relationship, and after ordering Peter to end the romance, throttles him after he retaliates when they have a secret meeting in the café. Shortly after, Max is left in a coma following a planned hit-and-run. It is ultimately revealed that Lauren is the culprit, but Tanya confesses to the crime, and is imprisoned, pleading guilty to attempted murder. This distresses Lauren, who reveals her intentions to spare her mother facing a jail sentence. Lauren is later found guilty of GBH with intent, and is sentenced to two years under supervision.

In 2008, Lauren finds herself being groomed by paedophile Tony King, stepfather to her best friend, Whitney Dean, with whom he is having a sexual relationship. When Tony's paedophilia is revealed, Lauren is shocked after learning that she was about to become Tony's next victim. Lauren dumps Peter after he lies to his friends, claiming that he and Lauren had a sexual experience in the allotments. However, the couple plan a reunion and Lauren tells him she is ready to have sex, but Max bans Peter from seeing Lauren, uncovering their main intentions. Lauren later moves away from Walford when her father gets into debt, leading to the family's possessions being taken by bailiffs. She returns to Walford briefly at Christmas, and breaks up with Peter again before seeing him kissing Zsa Zsa Carter, resulting in a catfight between her, Zsa Zsa and Whitney. She later attends Bradley's funeral after he falls from the roof of The Queen Victoria public house, after he attempts to flee Walford when the police accuse him of murdering Archie Mitchell. She also celebrates her sixteenth birthday at a party in R&R nightclub, where her uncle Jack (After attending Abi 's birthday dinner, Lauren informs her father that she is leaving Walford to spend the summer at a summer camp in the United States, departing Walford in June.

Lauren - now played by Jacqueline Jossa - returns from America earlier than expected, after being expelled from school for smoking cannabis. She reveals that she has gained a new boyfriend, Edward Brooks, but he ends their relationship as a result of the long-distance. Lauren attends her cousin Billie's  birthday party and as a present, she gives him alcohol which he quickly drinks; he is found dead of alcohol poisoning on the settee the following morning. Billie's mother, Carol later attacks Lauren, stating that she encouraged Billie to get more and more drunk. Lauren later believes that her father was responsible for Archie's murder, after he tells her that Bradley wasn't the culprit and she notes his violent tendencies when he angrily confronts Jay Brown after he makes crude sexual remarks to Lauren after she rejects his attempts at propositioning her. Lauren confronts her father, who tells her that he is not the killer but knows who is; after witnessing her father and Stacey together, Lauren realises that Stacey is the killer, and tricks a confession out of her, which she tapes on her mobile phone. Lauren threatens to go the police, but agrees to keep quiet after discovering that Archie raped Stacey. However, on Christmas Day, Lauren hands Janine Butcher  the recording, leading to Stacey fleeing Walford after Janine exposes her as the killer. Lauren develops a crush on Whitney 's half-brother Ryan Malloy and he later succumbs, having sex with Lauren. The pair begin an affair. However, the relationship is almost terminated when Tanya uncovers the romance. Her relationship with Ryan later ends when he flees Walford after killing Rob Grayson, who had been sexually exploiting Whitney for financial gain.

Upon discovering Max and Tanya are having an affair, despite Tanya re-marrying Greg Jessop, Lauren threatens to kill Max unless the affair ends, but it secretly continues. The affair is soon exposed, causing Max to leave Walford. Lauren is angered by her mother's actions originally, but is devastated that Tanya has been diagnosed with womb cancer. Lauren promises to support Tanya, but struggles to cope with her mother's illness. She starts consuming alcohol to excess and almost ends Darren Miller and Jodie Gold's engagement by having sex with Darren. Afterwards, she experiences having a casual relationship with Tyler Moon, who dumps him after realizing Whitney is still in love with him. Max later returns to Walford, and when Lauren uncovers that Tanya has stopped her treatment, begs Max to stay, eventually revealing her illness to him, prompting Max to remain in Walford. Lauren's rebellion continues, and after she becomes intoxicated at Pat Evans's funeral, she is berated by her parents, and given a private consultation with a GP. Lauren withdraws from school, and is employed by her father at the car lot. She resumes consuming alcohol and attempts to conceal this from her parents. Her drinking is so heavy that Lucy tells her to return home but Lauren ignores her and insists that she is fine. Lucy loses her and she is found passed out in the street. Lauren tells her parents her drink was spiked before stating she is mature enough to make decisions. She then decides to move out. On her 18th birthday, a drunken Lauren belatedly arrives at a family party, organised by Tanya. After being sick, Lauren admits to her parents that she is uncontrollable and promises not to drink excessively anymore. She later moves back home after not being able to cope with laziness of her housemates. Lauren and Lucy go on a night out where a drunken Lauren kisses a stranger, Dan, who drags her into his car. After Lucy manages to drag her out of the car, the pair argue and Lauren storms off. Lucy finds her unconscious and takes her to hospital, however, they become separated again when Lauren discharges herself from hospital. Lauren returns home to find Lucy has already confessed everything to Max, Tanya and Ian. Angry, Lauren argues with her family and leaves, meeting up with Dan. After she rejects his advances, Lauren goes to Lucy 's home and Lucy tells her that she does not want anything more to do with her.

Lauren meets her estranged cousin Joey Branning and becomes attracted to him. Her friendship with Lucy rekindles after Lucy 's father disappears and Lauren helps to find him. Joey and Lucy have a relationship but Lauren discovers that Joey kissed Whitney, and urges her to tell Lucy. Lucy breaks up with him and the three girls take revenge by handcuffing him to playground equipment. Lauren decides to free him so he does not lose his job, and he tells her she is jealous that she did not get a kiss, so she slaps him. Joey is working at R&R when he sees Lauren flirting with a group of men, causing him to throw them out and take Lauren home. Lauren shares a kiss with Joey but he rejects her. The following day, Joey explains that because of her intoxication, he rejected her and they kiss again. Lauren realizes she cannot be with her cousin, so she resists. Eventually, sexual tension mounts between them and they start a secret relationship. Joey's father Derek Branning sees Joey and Lauren kissing through the window of the car lot office. Derek later threatens Lauren, and she pleas with Joey to leave Walford with her. As they drive away in Derek's car, a drunk Lauren loses control of the car and crashes into a shop. Derek helps rescue them from the burning building, and forces Joey to take the blame for the crash. At the hospital, Lauren reveals her relationship with Joey to Tanya, and Derek blackmails Joey into ending his relationship with Lauren. Heartbroken and distraught, Lauren continues consuming alcohol. Tanya later comes to realise that Joey is still in love with Lauren. Lauren later drunkenly reveals her relationship with Joey to the rest of her family. Joey leaves Walford after Derek dies, but returns and reunites with Lauren, where Lucy witnesses them kissing. When trying to justify her relationship, Lauren is shocked when Lucy calls her selfish and undeserving of Joey's love, so Lauren considers telling the police the truth about the car crash, until Joey convinces her not to. Lauren and Joey 's relationship is publicly revealed, though people start to accept it. Lauren discovers that Tanya has lied about missing a hospital appointment, and as Tanya refuses to talk, Lauren starts drinking again and bonds with Max 's secret wife, Kirsty Branning, upsetting Tanya.

Lauren finds out that Kirsty is pregnant, although she is unaware that Kirsty is lying. At a party Lucy spikes Lauren's drink with alcohol, and Lauren gets drunk and reveals that Kirsty is pregnant. Lauren falls out with Joey, who breaks up with her over her drunken behavior. She applies for a job as a waitress with Whitney at Ian Beale's new restaurant, where Lucy calls Joey to be Lauren's test customer to ensure that Lauren will fail the task. Whitney gets the job but purposely withdraws so that Lauren gets the job instead. Lauren tries to make Joey jealous by kissing Tyler, who is now engaged to Whitney, but it fails and Whitney ends their friendship and Lucy offers the job back to Whitney. Lauren's drinking gets worse, though she believes she is not dependent on alcohol, and she tricks her step-grandmother Dot Branning into giving her money, which she uses to buy alcohol. Tanya is angry when she discovers this. Lauren then steals £20 from Cora's purse to buy more alcohol and when Tanya discovers this, she compares her to her aunt, Rainie Cross. Disgusted, Lauren attempts to buy more alcohol but Kirsty refuses to serve her, following Tanya's wishes. Lauren walks outside and confides in Joey, but Lucy sees this and starts to intimidate Lauren, causing Lauren to violently punch Lucy in the face and smash the café window. Lauren is later arrested but Lucy decides not to press charges. Ian gives Lauren her waitress job back, but on the opening night of the restaurant, Lauren gets drunk and spills drink on one of the guests, so she is sacked again. Tanya and Max discover a lot of bottles in Lauren's bedroom, so Tanya decides to keep Lauren locked in the house. She believes Lauren is showing no signs of withdrawal, but Lauren reveals she has been drinking vodka from a water bottle, so Tanya realizes she is addicted to alcohol. Tanya keeps Lauren locked in her room, where her withdrawal leads her to escape through the window. Lauren tells her parents that nobody can stop her from drinking if she wants to. The next day, Tanya tells Lauren to leave after she destroys Abi 's revision notes, and stays with Max and Kirsty. Tanya asks a recently returned Peter to spend time with Lauren, but their date is sabotaged by Lucy, so Lauren gets drunk again and leaves with a group of strangers. When she returns the following morning, her skin and eyes are yellow and she collapses in pain, so she is taken to hospital, where she is diagnosed with alcoholic hepatitis and is warned that she could die if she consumes any more alcohol. Lauren returns home and sees Joey outside so tries to find him. She confronts Lucy over her relationship with Joey, but Lucy refuses to give a straightforward answer, so Lauren concludes that they are together and she tries to get another drink but is refused service. Tanya takes her home, where she admits that she cannot cope with her parents arguing all the time. Ultimately, Tanya blames herself for Lauren's plight and takes Lauren to a clinic to get her help and get her away from her problems in Walford.

Lauren returns to Walford, now sober and making a good recovery. However, she dislikes how people treat her, until Abi reminds her of all the hurt she caused. Lauren finally reconciles with Lucy, Whitney and Joey. On a night out with the girls, Lauren is heartbroken to discover that Joey had sex with Whitney while she was away. Lauren leaves and sneaks a drink with her. She puts some in her mouth, but spits it out before she swallows. She attends counselling and meets Jake Stone.

