Christine "Chrissie" Watts is the murderer and widow of Den Watts. She is portrayed by Tracy-Ann Oberman and first appeared on 29 April 2004.
Storylines
2004: Arrival, the Watts family and Den Watts' affair with Kate Mitchell
Chrissie arrives in Walford in search of her husband, Den. Their marriage has turned sour and he has sold their bar in Spain and taken the money. Den manages to persuade her to give their marriage another try and to stay in Walford with him. She is shocked to discover that he has children - Sharon Watts, Dennis Rickman and Vicki Fowler, and that while he was in Spain with her, he was in exile after faking his own death.
She starts work as a hairdresser in Kate Mitchell's nail salon and helps stepdaughter Vicki with her plans to enter fashion school. However, Den's elusive behaviour raises her suspicions that he is having an affair. He almost convinces her that she is mistaken but she eventually learns that her fears were correct and uncovers the affair between Den and Kate. Feigning friendship, she hacks off most of Kate's hair and smashes up the beauty salon in a rage. She leaves Walford distraught at Den's betrayal.
Den departs for Spain on business and Chrissie returns to the salon as she remains the co-owner. She remains hostile to Kate for some time, but eventually calls a truce. She then becomes concerned over Vicki's much older boyfriend Tommy Grant and exposes him as a liar. At this point, Den returns intent on securing her forgiveness. However, she does not succumb to his charm offensive and so, as a demonstration of his affection, he confides in her of his plans to bankrupt the Mitchell family and take control of the Queen Victoria public house, declaring that he can't do it without her. She relents, but warns if he ever cheats again she will kill him. Together, they scam the Mitchell family out of their holdings and move into the Vic on Christmas Day 2004.
2005: The Queen Vic, murder of Den Watts, relationship with Jake Moon and imprisonment
In January, Dennis catches Den and his girlfriend Zoe Slater in bed together and tells Chrissie who is stunned. Zoe discovers that she is pregnant by Den. Chrissie persuades her to abort the baby and later reveals that she knows it was Den's baby.
Chrissie, Zoe and Sam Hunter plan revenge on Den; Chrissie for his lies and adultery, Zoe for forcing her to fake a pregnancy and then sleep with him, and Sam for losing her pub to Den in a corrupt scheme that both he and Chrissie were involved in. Chrissie plans to intimidate Den into signing the pub over to her.
On 18 February, they confront Den but he takes it in his stride and openly talks about his sins, unaware that Sharon is hiding at the other side of the pub, listening to her father's confessions. Sharon berates Chrissie for tricking her into coming back to Walford with the lie that her father is ill. She storms out of the pub and Den follows. Chrissie knows that Sharon is the one person Den truly loves and cares about and knows that losing Den the love of his favourite child will destroy him. Den walks back in and she taunts him that he now knows what it is like to lose what he loves most. Unable to contain his rage, Den attacks his wife and hits her head against a fruit machine. Zoe picks up the nearest object - Pauline Fowler's dog doorstop - and hits Den over the head with it and he falls to the ground. Perceiving him to be dead, Zoe and Sam go out to the back to turn all the lights off and lock all the doors. A smug Chrissie starts to gloat that Den is dead, as if to say she has won. Den suddenly grabs her leg, so Chrissie picks up the doorstop and delivers a fatal blow to his head, secretly watched by Sam. The three women bury him in a hole in the pub's cellar, which is filled with cement the next morning.
Despite knowing that she is innocent, Chrissie allows Zoe to believe that she has killed Den. Consequently, a power struggle breaks out between Sam - who wants her pub back in return for her silence - and Chrissie, with each woman trying to gain control of Zoe. In the meantime, Chrissie publicly accounts for Den's sudden absence by declaring that he has run off with another woman and attempts to make her story convincing by throwing his clothes into the street and engaging in a bogus phone conversation with him in front of a packed pub. She successfully removes Zoe from the Square for a time, and begins a relationship with Jake Moon. However, Sam has taken the doorstop and hidden it in her flat. She then proceeds to blackmail Chrissie by saying that unless the pub is given back to her, she will inform the police. Chrissie stalls for time and eventually calls Sam's bluff, declaring that she will take Sam down with her if she goes to the police.
On 17 June, Dennis and Sharon return to Walford in search of their father. Chrissie starts to panic more when they start asking questions and inform the police of Den's disappearance. A desperate Sam tries to corner Chrissie by telling Zoe the truth. Zoe confronts Chrissie before fleeing to Spain on 24 June, telling her mother Kat Moon what has happened before she goes.
On 29 August - Dennis and Sharon's wedding day - a drunken Sam grows frustrated and smashes up Den's grave and digs up his body in the hope that Chrissie will be sent down for his death. This backfires and Sam is arrested on suspicion of murder as Den's bloodstains are found under her sink and her story constantly changes. Chrissie asks Kat to get her cousin Stacey Slater to give a false alibi that Zoe and Chrissie were with her on the night that Den died. Kat agrees as it means that Zoe is safe from the police.
Sam's mother, Peggy Mitchell, returns to Walford on 8 September to free Sam. She slaps Chrissie during Den's funeral on 12 September. The slap causes Chrissie to fall into Den's grave on top of the coffin.
Chrissie plans to sell the pub to Johnny Allen and an unknown second buyer, and flee the country. Phil and Grant Mitchell try to taunt her, though she is unfazed as Sharon still supports her. Grant finally convinces Sharon to visit Sam in prison. Sharon still believes that Chrissie is innocent but finally learns the truth when Chrissie makes an innocuous, but telling, comment. Realising that Sharon knows, Chrissie becomes distraught as she felt that so long as Sharon, Den's daughter, thought well of her, she could think well of herself. Panicking, she begins to make mistakes, arguing with Jake outside of Johnny's club. Chrissie had confessed her role in Den's death to Jake and lets information regarding her guilt slip as they argue. This is caught on CCTV by Johnny, who delights in telling Jake that he has a recording. Chrissie asks to get the money for the Queen Vic right away and Johnny takes advantage, saying the only way that she will get the money is if she sleeps with him. Chrissie resists, saying that she will not hurt Jake. Johnny tells her that she will not receive the money and tells Phil and Grant about the tape.
Chrissie discovers that Ian Beale is the mystery buyer of the pub and she and Jake make a quick sale to Ian before fleeing the Square on 8 November. At the airport, they see Sharon, Phil and Grant with the police. Sharon confronts and then punches Chrissie, who is then arrested for Den's murder. Chrissie says that she will only co-operate in exchange for a meeting with Sharon. This is earned and she tries to make Sharon realise why she killed her father, to no avail. She reveals that she forged Den's signature on the document in which Den handed over the pub to Chrissie, thus the pub legally belongs to Sharon. Jake visits Chrissie in jail and asks her to marry him. She finds out that he has lost the £25,000 that was to be her bail money and storms out of the visiting room, calling Jake an idiot. She begins plotting revenge on Sharon for sending her to prison by trying to force her to testify in court about what Den was really like, wanting to see Sharon crumble at confessing how he cheated and supposedly and allegedly beat her mother, Angie Watts. After a week in prison, she gives up and dismisses her solicitor and decides to plead guilty to murder. After an emotional farewell to Jake, she walks into her cell with a contented smile.
Though Chrissie has not been seen or heard of since, when Sam returns to Walford in September 2009, she is arrested for her role in Den's murder and expresses a fear of running into Chrissie in prison, although this doesn't happen.
2024: Return inside prison and release from prison
On 5 September 2024, Sharon Watts was transferred from Walford Police Station to the same prison that Chrissie is residing in due to her being held in contempt for arguing with the Judge during the ongoing murder trial of Keanu Taylor. As Sharon enters her cell, the camera pans to the cell next to hers and the police officer enters with a pack of cigarettes. As he enters, a voice is heard saying 'money is on the side' and the camera pans to a figure lighting up and smoking a cigarette - it's Chrissie.
The next day, Chrissie is informed by Sharon's cell mate, Dor, that there is another Watts in the prison called Sharon Watts. Chrissie is shocked and goes to see Sharon and confront her for setting the police on her 19 years ago. The pair argue but eventually have a heart to heart when Sharon reveals the reason she is in prison and the reasoning behind Keanu Taylor's death. As they talk about the similarities that they have both faced, Sharon tells Chrissie that she forgives her and Chrissie says that she has her back. However, as Chrissie leaves the cell, her smile drops and forms into a scowl. Chrissie asks two other prisoners to teach Sharon a lesson in order for their debt to Chrissie to be cancelled.
When the two prisoners try and attack Sharon with a knife, an officer enters and tells Sharon that her brief is here, meaning the confrontation is over. The prisoners tell Chrissie they can't do it and that if Chrissie wants something done she will have to do it herself. Chrissie thinks on this and decides not to go through with anything but when Sharon enters the communal area calling her a snake and takes back her forgiveness, Chrissie plots to take revenge on Sharon herself. After everyone is in their cells, Chrissie tells an officer that Dor has something stashed under her bed meaning the whole wing has to have their rooms searched. The two prisoners knock into Dor and this encourages everyone to fight. Whilst the fight is ongoing, Chrissie grabs Sharon and puts the knife to her back as she leads her into her cell. Chrissie closes the door and tells Sharon that she was pregnant with Jake Moon's baby when she first went to prison but suffered a miscarriage two weeks into her prison sentence. Sharon is scared and backs up into a corner as Chrissie taunts her with a boiling kettle, threatening to pour it over her. Sharon manages to knock it out of her hand and an officer enters the cell. Sharon then gets let back into her own cell and when she comes into the communal area, Officer Bryant tells her that he has made an appointment for her with the Governor to tell them about Chrissie threatening her. As Chrissie's final night in prison approaches, she is taken to isolation and Sharon teases her saying she will tell the Governor about what happened in the cell. Chrissie issues a final warning telling Sharon that if she goes to the Governor she will tell everyone what she got up to last Christmas.
When Sharon decides not to report Chrissie to the Governor, she makes amends with Chrissie, who is then issued parole. Before she leaves, Chrissie tells Sharon that she shared cell with the daughter of Johnny Allen, Ruby, and reveals that she had been moved when she gave birth to a baby. After leaving prison, Chrissie reunites with Jake during a brief stop in Albert Square, and they drive away.
Kill count
Murders/manslaughter victims
- Den Watts (18 February 2005) – Struck him with a doorstop.
Attempted murder victims
- Sharon Watts (10 September 2024) (by proxy) - Ordered two prisoners to stab Sharon, however the plan was aborted when the prisoners were caught by a prison officer.
Employment history
| Occupation | Years Active |
|---|---|
| Employee at Angie's Den | 2004 |
| Co-owner and co-licensee of The Queen Victoria | 2004 to 2005 |
Residence
| Address | Years |
|---|---|
| 5 Albert Square | 2004 |
| The Queen Victoria | 2004 to 2005 |
Fight count
Slaps
- Kate Mitchell (30 July 2004) (during a fight with Kate)
- Den Watts (30 July 2004)
- Den Watts (11 November 2004)
- Sam Mitchell (21 February 2005)
- Zoe Slater (10 June 2005)
- Ferne (8 December 2005)
- Sharon Watts (11 September 2024)
Total: 7
Individual characters slapped: 6
Total slaps: 7