By Lewis Knight

Published: Monday, 12 December 2022 at 12:00 am

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As Albert Square mourns the passing of Dot Branning in EastEnders, memories of the past will no doubt be stirred up.

In Monday’s funeral episode (12th December 2022), the residents of Walford past and present gather to pay their respects to Dot.

Among them is soap favourite Kathy Beale (Gillian Taylforth) who is also reunited with former teen runaway Disa O’Brien (Jan Graveson), who Dot had once taken in.

It is also mentioned how Dot took in Kathy’s daughter Donna too, but who was Kathy Beale’s daughter Donna Ludlow in EastEnders?

Who is Kathy Beale’s daughter Donna Ludlow in EastEnders?

Donna Ludlow was the daughter of Kathy Beale who she gave up for adoption as a teenager, as the pregnancy was the result of her being raped by a man named Marcus Duffy.

Years later, Kathy had been approached by Donna’s godmother asking if she would like to meet her biological daughter but Kathy rejected the idea.

In 1987, the enigmatic character of Donna Ludlow (Matilda Ziegler) arrived on Albert Square and managed to get a job as a barmaid in the Queen Vic pub where Kathy sometimes worked. Unbeknownst to Kathy, the daughter she had once given up was now right under her nose.

In her early months in the soap, Donna would call Kathy who worked at a Samaritans call centre and confide in her about her problems.

Donna was shown to be manipulative and a habitual liar and clearly had a secret with fabrications about her past, but it was not until the following year that the truth of her identity was finally revealed to Kathy – who had grown concerned by a growing spark between Donna, who she now suspected of the troubling calls, and Kathy’s son Ian Beale (Adam Woodyatt).

Ultimately, unable to face being reminded of the trauma she experienced as a child, Kathy rejected Donna.

In the aftermath, Donna went on a vendetta and sought to make Kathy’s life hell by trying to seduce her half-brother Ian and sowing seeds of doubt in the mind of Kathy’s husband Pete Beale (Peter Dean) about her fidelity.

In the end, Donna’s actions forced Kathy to reveal how she was conceived, sending Donna into a further spiral.