EastEnders’ Zack Hudson (James Farrar) was left reeling when he discovered he has a secret son on Tuesday.
His former lover Nicola Mitchell (Laura Doddington) dropped the bombshell that her teenage son Barney Mitchell (Lewis Bridgeman) is actually his, and not her ex-husband’s Teddy Mitchell (Roland Manookian).
Zack made the shock discovery after a distressing time for the Mitchells, after Barney was rushed to hospital with complications from the injuries he sustained in the Queen Vic explosion last month.
Tuesday’s episode of the BBC soap had seen Zack confront Barney at the club in an attempt to stop him speaking out about sister Sharon Watts’ (Letitia Dean) secret.
Earlier in the week, Barney overheard Sharon admitting to Zack she had cheated on Teddy with ex-husband Grant Mitchell (Ross Kemp).
But as Zack tried to convince Barney not to say anything, he collapsed in agony and was rushed to hospital.
While there, Zack overheard a conversation between Nicola and Teddy about blood types, which didn’t add up with information Nicola had earlier told paramedics about Barney being A/B.
His suspicions spiked, Zack cornered a nurse with questions about blood type matches, which confirmed what he suspected – it was not possible for Nicola and Teddy, who are both type As, to have an A/B child.
Doing the maths about his previous fling with Nicola, which happened years prior to their arrivals in Walford, Zack confronted his former lover and asked outright if Barney was his son.
After initially denying it, Nicola then finally admitted Zack is indeed Barney’s dad.
However, spoilers for forthcoming episodes have already revealed Zack isn’t about to have a happy reunion with his son any time soon.
Nicola will stop at nothing to keep the news a secret and gets the upper hand later this week when some revealing information about Sharon lands in her lap…
EastEnders airs Monday to Thursday at 7.30pm on BBC One or stream first from 6am on iPlayer.
