EastEnders airs emotive scenes as Zack tells pub about HIV diagnosis

Ben went too far.

By Helen Daly

Published: Monday, 24 April 2023 at 12:00 am

BBC soap EastEnders aired an emotional scene tonight as Zack Hudson (James Farrar) ended up telling the whole Vic about his HIV diagnosis.

It all stemmed from Ben Mitchell (Max Bowden), who was having a really rough day after finding out his rapist had been caught and prosecuted following another attack on a separate individual.

He heard the news before his big fight against Martin Fowler (James Bye) and instead of draining him entirely of the will to fight, it prompted him to get up and push on.

During the big fight, Martin successfully landed some good punches, knocking Ben to the floor, but as Phil was the judge of the event, he was given a bit of leeway to get up and try again.

Despite the bell ringing, Ben pushed on and punched Martin square in the face prompting a knock-out.

Back in the pub afterwards, Ben was lauding it over everyone calling Zack a “coward” for not wanting to take him on in a fight, but it was nothing of the sort; Zack would have failed the blood test should he have even tried to take part due to his diagnosis.

Things turned nasty when Zack insisted Ben needed to sit down and take the win gracefully.