EastEnders’ Gillian Taylforth slapped Letitia Dean during affair reveal scenes
EXCLUSIVE: EastEnders stars Gillian Taylforth and Letitia Dean have both been in the BBC soap since the first episode aired in 1985 and have shared plenty of tense scenes together
EastEnders star Gillian Taylforth once slapped Letitia Dean around the face during an intense scene in the 90s.
Gillian, 68 and Letitia, 56, both made their first appearance as Kathy Beale and Sharon Watts in the BBC soap’s first episode in 1985. The acting duo both left the soap a number of times but have been back for more than eight years and are now two members of The Six.
In their first run, Kathy was in a relationship with Phil Mitchell (Steve McFadden) while Sharon was married to his brother Grant Mitchell (Ross Kemp). In 1992, Sharon and Phil began and affair which culminated in an episode in 1994, dubbed Sharongate.
Gillian actually slapped Letitia on set (Image: EastEnders /Youtube)
On Wednesday (December 13), Gillian and Letita were joined by Diane Parish, Kellie Bright and Lacey Turner, as well as executive producer Chris Clenshaw for a Q&A to discuss the highly-anticipated Christmas episode.
Each actress was asked what festive storyline sticks out to them but things quickly turned to Sharongate. Letitia said: “I don’t think it was Christmas but I enjoyed doing my Sharongate stuff with Phil and Grant.”
Gillian chipped in: “Yeah that was nice when I found out you were sleeping with my husband.” Recalling the infamous slap, Letitia added: “We didn’t have a stunt director then. You actually whacked me around me around the face.”
Gillian responded: “She said to me just hit me round the face, go for it Gillian and I did. There was a mark on her face but she said go for it!” Kathy’s marriage to Rocky Cotton (Brian Conley) is currently on the rocks after she discovered he was responsible for burning her café down as part of an insurance scam to pay off his debts to Nish Panesar (Navin Chowdhry).
Teasing what’s ahead for the couple, the actress said: “She still does love him. And there’s that awful thing, that love and hate thing, and she loves him but she hates what he’s done.
But deep down she still really loves him.” She added: “Things will happen with Rocky and it’s going to be very upsetting.”
