EastEnders actress Jessie Wallace has criticised the soap's recent storylines, which have left her - and fans – bemused as her character Kat Moon discovered she had given birth to a son she didn’t know about decades earlier, who had been given up for adoption.
Jessie called the plot twist “a bit ridiculous”, a sentiment echoed by co-star Shane Richie (Alfie Moon) of previous storylines.
Kat and Alfie will go to Ireland to find her adopted son (Steve Peskett/BBC)
Kat and Alfie are being given a spin-off series where they leave the Square for Ireland to find Kat’s long-lost son.
Speaking together on Ireland’s The Late Late Show on Friday, Jessie said of the plot: “I don’t know what to say. She was so out of it, Kat, and obviously before she had a scan she did not know she had another son.
“All roads lead to Ireland. It seems a little bit ridiculous that she did not know she had a son. I am trying to justify this.
“She must have been so out of it, she did not know she had another child. He gets adopted and moves to Ireland and then Kat and Alfie go to Ireland to look for him.”
Kat recently lost dad Charlie (Jack Barnes/BBC)
Jessie, 44, and Shane, 51, will reportedly film their spin-off in April for four months.
Shane then slammed the pair’s 2011 storyline where Ronnie Mitchell (Samantha Womack) swapped her child for Alfie and Kat’s after her son died of infant cot death as “a farce”.
Speaking on Ireland’s The Late Late Show, he said: “That turned into a farce, for want of a better word, because it became like a baby swap story. It split the audience.
“We spent time with couples who had sadly lost children and we did our research. Doing that was tough as we have both got children. We put our heart and soul into that to play the truth.”
The close friends said it was like kissing family (Yui Mok/PA)
He added: “Who would ever move into Albert Square? Someone gets murdered every Christmas and there is an illegitimate baby born.”
Jessie replied: “It is a bit Jeremy Kyle, ain’t it?”
She said her favourite storyline for the pair was them getting together, which saw them falling in love over the course of a year.
But there’s no hope of fiction becoming reality.
“Kissing Shane is like kissing my brother. It just feels weird and we are just close friends,” she revealed.
“We are sick of the sight of each other.When I kiss Jesse it is like kissing my nan,” joked Shane.
EastEnders continues on BBC1, Monday at 8pm
