Ronnie Branning

Veronica 'Ronnie' Mitchell is a part of the Mitchell Family in EastEnders. She has one daughter, Danielle Jones (AKA Amy Mitchell).

Storylines
Archie Mitchell proceeded to take his pregnant 14-year-old daughter Ronnie away to distant relatives, where she gave birth to her daughter Amy in 1989. After the birth, Archie then took the baby away and put her up for adoption, leaving his daughter heartbroken that resulted in a hatred for him. As a result, Ronnie walked out in 1993 when she was 18/19 years old, and Archie hadn't seen or talked to her since.

Ronnie arrived in Walford with her sister Roxy on 24 July 2007 for their cousin Phil's wedding to Stella Crawford,and the sisters decide to move there permanently from Ibiza, where they ran a bar together. After a period of working as a barmaid for her aunt Peggy, Ronnie decided to invest in her own business, the vacant night club in Turpin Road, which she plans to run with Roxy. However, her plan suffered a setback when another buyer put in a higher offer. In order to secure ownership, Ronnie agreed to go into partnership with Jack Branning, an ex-policeman who showed obvious interest in Ronnie since his arrival in October 2007. The club is named R&R, after Ronnie and Roxy. Despite Jack's promise to be a silent partner, he moved to Walford and appropriates himself as part-owner. Ronnie is furious, particularly when her family discover she lied about the club's ownership to them. A rift forms between the Mitchells and Jack.

Ronnie and Jack finally became a legitimate couple early in January 2008, following weeks of playing games with each other. Roxy and Phil were opposed to their union. Phil made Ronnie suspicious about Jack's past and his estrangement from his family. When Jack refused to divulge anything, Ronnie visited his ex-wife Selina. She discovered Jack's daughter Penny is paralysed as a result of a revenge attack from a drug dealer he imprisoned. Ronnie is understanding but Jack is angry at her interference. After distancing himself from Ronnie, he has sex with Selina at R&R but was seen by Roxy. Furious, Roxy ordered Jack to finish with Ronnie, but Jack asked Ronnie to move in with him instead, leading Roxy to tell Ronnie what she saw. Ronnie reacted by punching Jack at Fargo's restaurant, ending their relationship.

Ronnie eventually forgave Jack. They reunite but when Jack fails to tell her about her sister's lover, Sean Slater, dealing drugs, the relationship ends again. It transpires Roxy is a former cocaine addict and Ronnie berates her for getting involved with a drug dealer. Angered by Ronnie, Roxy and Jack have sex. Shortly afterwards, Roxy discovers she is pregnant, though she is unsure who the father is. When Ronnie discovers Roxy's pregnancy, she tells her to abort the baby, adamant she would make a bad mother. In retaliation, Roxy reveals Ronnie's secret — she had fallen pregnant at 14, but their father, Archie, forced her to give her daughter away at birth; Ronnie has never forgiven him. Following their argument, Ronnie promised to help raise Roxy's baby, unaware Jack could be the father. They left Walford for Ibiza in May 2008 to escape Sean, who believed the baby is his.

Ronnie reappears in July, looking for Roxy. The sisters had argued and unknown to Ronnie, Roxy had taken refuge with her father in Dorset. Peggy but neglected to inform Ronnie of this due to Archie's fear of Ronnie not turning up. Ronnie visits Roxy and is stunned to see her estranged father Archie who Ronnie hasn't seen for 15 years. They argue about their history and Archie devastates Ronnie by revealing that her daughter, Amy, is dead, that he never wanted Ronnie and always favoured Roxy. Roxy, who has reunited with Sean, returned to Walford to be near her grieving sister. Ronnie was displeased with Roxy and Sean's renewed relationship. She tried to split them up by framing Sean for drug dealing and provoking him to hit her. Ultimately, the plan backfired and Roxy and Sean marry. Despite trying to prevent the ceremony, Ronnie accepts defeat, giving the marriage her blessing. Meanwhile, Archie begins a romance with Peggy and moves to Walford to announce their engagement. Distrusting Archie, Ronnie attempts to split them up but fails, and ends up being thrown out by an exasperated Peggy.

Despite Archie's claim that Ronnie's daughter is dead, "Amy" arrived in Walford, going by the name Danielle Jones. Ronnie is unaware of their connection and turns against Danielle when she appeared to spying on her for Archie. Meanwhile, Ronnie tried to make contact with the father of her daughter and Ronnie's first love, Joel Reynolds, but Archie intercepts and burns Joel's letter. The bickering with her father leaves Ronnie emotional; she breaks down and admits to Jack that she still loves him. Jack turned her down in favour of Tanya Branning, but when Tanya dumps Jack shortly after, he starts to grow close to Ronnie again when they end up living in the same flat.

On 17 November 2008, Ronnie supported Roxy when she went into labour two months early because Sean failed to attend the birth, thanks to Archie. Thanking Ronnie for her support, Roxy decided to call her baby daughter Amy, after Ronnie's daughter and this heartened Ronnie. But this wasn't a normal birth as Amy had to be rushed to neonatal intensive care unit where she was in an incubator to help her breathe as her lungs aren't properly developed. Later on, Ronnie realized that Sean had never received the call from Archie about Roxy going into labour and she helped Sean resolve the problem to visit his daughter.

On Christmas Day 2008, Jack and Ronnie share a kiss and it looks like they will get back together until Suzy Branning plants Amy's paternity test results in Sean's Christmas cracker, leading to the discovery that Sean isn't Amy's dad. Jack's cagey reaction leads Ronnie and Sean to realise that he is the baby's biological father, prompting Ronnie to walk away in disgust, which is accelerated by the unrepentant Roxy. What none of four realise however, was that Archie was the one who gave Suzy the test results to split Roxy and Sean so that she wouldn't move to Dagenhan with him. Sean abducts Amy but she is returned to the Mitchells by Stacey and when Roxy and Sean make up and decide to go to Dagenham after all, Ronnie does nothing to stop them, until she and Jack receive a phone call from Roxy and realise that Sean is planning to kill her, Amy and himself by driving into a frozen lake. Ronnie and Jack eventually track them down, by which point Roxy has lead Sean away from Amy and the car and onto the lake. The ice gives way, with Roxy and Sean plunging into the murky depths. Ronnie instinctively dives in after them and rescues Roxy, while Sean disappears into the night. Despite having saved her sister's life, Ronnie is still unable to forgive her for her betrayal and remains cold towards her.

In January 2009, Ronnie grows close to Danielle, who has been kicked out of the Slater house. Ronnie, having moved into a new flat to escape Jack, agrees to let Danielle stay when Danielle reveals she is pregnant, Ronnie unaware that the unborn baby is her grandchild and the expectant mother her own daughter. She gets in touch with Danielle's (adoptive) father who fails to convince Danielle to come back to Telford. When Ronnie tells Danielle that having her own baby at such a young age was the biggest mistake of her life, Danielle decides to have a termination.

Ronnie then has to deal with Janine Butcher, whose arrogance and unsavoury reputation make Ronnie think twice about ermploying her at R&R, though she decides to take Janine on as a toilet cleaner so she can laugh at her fall from grace. Jack is taken with Janine's charm however and decides to hire her as an event manager for the club, to Ronnie's chagrin. Ronnie attempts to sabotage the stag night Janine has organised but this backfires and when Janine draws similarities between her late father, Frank and Ronnie, Ronnie begins to mellow towards her and when Janine offers to convince Jack to sell his share of R&R to Ronnie, Ronnie contemplates an alliance with her against Jack.

When Danielle asked for Ronnie's whereabouts since her return to Walford from Telford, Peggy stated that Ronnie is in Ibiza to visit her friends. This had disappointed Danielle when she may decide to reveal to Ronnie that she is her daughter.

When returning to Walford, Roxy had been attempting to get a reconcilliation with Ronnie. However despite her efforts, Ronnie stated that whenever she sees Amy's face all she could see is Jack.

On 10 March 2009, Ronnie and Roxy had fought in the street when Ronnie demanded to get a credit card that Jack had given to Roxy after discovering that she had spent the money limitlessly. However Ronnie was unsuccessful to get the credit card and coincidentally they were fighting at the doorstep of Gilly's Massage Parlour, where illegal prostitution was held and police started to arrest prostitutes who were working there illegally. But when the police arrived they got the wrong idea of what Ronnie and Roxy were doing and wrongly arrested them both for prostitution. When they were both being locked in a police cell together, the sisters had a heart to heart talking about their past when Ronnie was with her daughter's father Joel. However at the end of the conversation Ronnie told a guilty Roxy that she is still in love with Jack and wanted to spend the rest of her life with him. When they were eventually released, Roxy was starting to feel guilty and had sacrificed snapping Jack's credit card for the sake of Ronnie's feelings Ronnie said yes to being Peggy's bridesmaid.

On 2 April 2009, Ronnie found out that Danielle Jones was indeed her daughter. Having initially thrown her out, Ronnie went searching for Danielle and eventually found her. As the two were about to hug, Janine Butcher accidentally ran over Danielle in her car which resulted Danielle dying in her mother's arms with Roxy, Stacey and Janine by her side in shock.