EastEnders will see Jay Brown (played by Jamie Borthwick) and his wife Lola Pearce-Brown (Danielle Harold) face a difficult day at the hospital tonight [Thursday, March 16] as the symptoms of her brain tumour worsen. Jay was just 12 years old when he first appeared in Albert Square with BBC viewers watching him grow up in front of their eyes. He had a difficult childhood though, which led to him becoming an honorary member of the Mitchell family.
WARNING: This article contains spoilers from EastEnders.
EastEnders’ Jay Brown family tree explained
Jay Brown, the son of Jase Dyer (Stephen Lord) and Karen Brown, made his first appearance in EastEnders in December 2006.
His dying grandmother Evie Brown (Marji Campi) informed his estranged grandad Bert Atkinson (Dave Hill) he had a grandson but their daughter Karen had died of breast cancer.
Jay is at Evie’s funeral and goes to stay with Bert afterward, which was Evie’s dying wish but he was a troublesome youngster in those early days.
He stole, offended Yolande Trueman (Angela Wynter) with racial slurs, and broke into Pauline Fowler’s (Wendy Richard) house.
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His dad Jase arrived in Walford and Bert leaves the area which allowed the father and son to get closer.
The pair later tried to leave Albert Square after Jase double-crossed a football firm led by Terry Bates (Nicholas Ball).
Jay was held hostage as part of Terry’s revenge and while his dad saved him with help from his friend Billy Mitchell (Perry Fenwick), Jase ended up getting beaten to death by his goons.
What made the situation even worse though was the fact Billy was there but cowered away, listening and crying to Jase being killed rather than helping.
Billy ended up fostering Jay as he was wracked with guilt and the youngster was furious when he found out the truth.
Jay eventually forgave Billy to an extent when he testified against Terry in court, despite being threatened, sending him to prison for murder.
Billy and Jay moved in with the former’s cousin Phil Mitchell (Steve McFadden), who gave the teen a job as a mechanic.
Phil and Jay bonded when he stopped a man from stealing money from Walford’s crime boss and get closer during their time living together.
So much so Jay decided to change his surname from Brown to Mitchell which upset Phil’s son Ben Mitchell (Joshua Pascoe).
There was some animosity between Jay and Ben for a while but they started to get along and refer to each other as brothers, which they still do today.
They did hit a rough patch when Ben had Phil arrested in 2012 for the murder of his ex-partner Stella Crawford (Sophie Thompson), who abused Ben and jumped from a building in 2007 when Phil confronted her.
Ben told the police Phil had pushed her to punish his dad for rejecting him for being gay.
He admitted he gave false testimony to his half-brother Ian Beale (Adam Woodyatt) but Heather Trott (Cheryl Fergison) overheard.
Ian was the one who told the police the truth but Ben assumed it was Heather, so went into a fit of rage at her flat.
Ben hit Heather with a photo frame, killing her with Jay watching on in horror.
When told about what happened, Phil told Jay to help the family cover up the murder which he reluctantly did but changed his name back to Brown in protest.
Jay and the Mitchells once again made up though and fast forward to 2023, and he is still very much part of the Mitchell clan with Phil paying for his wedding to Lola.
EastEnders continues four nights a week on BBC One and BBC iPlayer.
