In tonight’s (June 26) episode of the BBC soap opera, one character reference may have confused you if you haven’t been an avid fan of EastEnders since the early 2000s.
We’ll pardon you if you don’t remember them all because Phil Mitchell (Steve McFadden) had a lot of marriages.
In tonight’s episode, Phil reveals that he once dated a woman who turned out to be an undercover police officer in a talk with George Knight (Colin Salmon).
Unable to recall who she was. We have your back!
Who was Phil’s covert police spouse?
The first time Phil’s undercover cop wife appeared on our screens was in 2002, going by the name Kate Tyler but subsequently revealing that her real name was Kate Morton.
Not that it mattered for very long because she soon married Phil and changed her name to Kate Mitchell.
In order to lure Phil into a recorded confession that he killed his ex-girlfriend Lisa Fowler (Lucy Benjamin), Kate was dispatched to Walford.
Things changed, though, when Kate realised she was falling in love with the offender. She ultimately quit her job as a police officer to be with him and started working as a nail technician.
Though Phil was at first shocked to discover that she had been trying to set him up, he soon discovered that her affections were sincere, and the couple went on to get married, provided that Phil ceased engaging in any illicit activities.
Phil and Kate’s divorce: what caused it?
Only a few months after Kate and Phil got married, Phil was jailed for his role in a heist, and their marriage was over.
Although she loved him, Kate argued that she couldn’t be with a criminal and ultimately made the decision to break things up.
Kate stayed on the Square until 2005, when she was given the chance to return to Brighton’s police department.
Who was Kate Mitchell’s actor?
Actress Jill Halfpenny, a native of Newcastle with a resume as long as her arm, played Kate Mitchell.
Jill had appeared on the rival serial opera Coronation Street as Rebecca Hopkins, a nurse who had an affair with Martin Platt, before joining EastEnders.
Prior to that, she had a four-series arc as Nicola Dobson on the venerable children’s television programme Byker Grove, where she received her big break.
Jill has had a tremendously successful career since her time on EastEnders, featuring in programmes like Waterloo Road, Humans, and Dark Money.
In the second season of Strictly Come Dancing, she and partner Darren Bennett achieved the competition’s first perfect 40 with a jive to Elton John’s “I’m Still Standing,” and they also won the glitterball trophy.
Jill received an Olivier Award in 2011 for her performance as Paulette in the musical version of Legally Blonde.
