EastEnders star Diane Parish talks aftermath of Denise affair discovery
EastEnders spoilers follow.
EastEnders star Diane Parish has opened up on the aftermath her character Denise Fox faces after her affair with Ravi Gulati (Aaron Thiara) is revealed.
Denise embarked on an affair with Ravi, eventually calling it off after she realised she would rather spend time with her husband Jack Branning (Scott Maslen) and their children.
However, Ravi did not take kindly to the rejection and attempted to blackmail Denise into giving up information on Jack's investigations into him as part of a wider investigation into organised crime.
After Denise refused and threatened to expose their affair herself, Ravi changed his tactics and embarked on a romantic relationship with her daughter, Chelsea Fox (Zaraah Abrahams).
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In scenes from the soap this week, Ravi introduced Chelsea to his family as his girlfriend as the pair begin to develop genuine feelings for each other. Though it's not long before things come crashing down as Denise comes clean to Jack about the affair and all hell breaks loose as he confronts Ravi.
Parish has spoken about what viewers can expect from the explosive episodes.
"Highly difficult, uncomfortable, emotionally raw stuff," she said. "Jack is understandably blindsided, broken and I can only hint at how amazing Scott Maslen is in those episodes. He's got his job which he's happy with and he had a plan for his family but everything keeps going wrong. For Jack, all the bricks in that house just fell away and he cannot believe that the woman that represented that for him, who he kept calling his rock, actually wasn't that at all. There is a look that he gave me in one of the scenes and it just broke my heart."
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The actor also opened up on whether she thinks Jack could ever find it in his heart to forgive Denise.
"I wouldn't like to say because I don't know what I would do in this situation. Ultimately, something like this has to organically and naturally play out," she said.
"The audience has been so invested and involved in this storyline, it's really been split down the middle. Some people have said Denise is out of order and shouldn't have done it and others are saying they don't blame Denise as Jack hasn't been treating her well. It's got a lot of conversation going which is great and I think that's what EastEnders and our writers have done brilliantly."
She ended by saying the pair have their "own dynamic" and there is no "straightforward answer" as to whether the pair will work through their problems, so fans will just have to tune in to witness the fallout for themselves.
EastEnders airs on Mondays - Thursdays at 7.30pm on BBC One. The show also streams on BBC iPlayer.
Read more EastEnders spoilers on our dedicated homepage
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