EastEnders star Diane Parish responds to Denise’s choice in huge storyline

EastEnders star Diane Parish has finally given her opinion on her character Denise Fox’s huge choice from last year’s 40th anniversary. As a reminder, viewers got to vote last year on whether Denise should stick with Jack Branning or leave him for Ravi Gulati.

In the big live episode to celebrate the milestone, the viewers’ choice played out and Denise chose Jack.

But what does the person who plays her think?

Appearing on the BBC’s Morning Live last week, Parish said she was finally ready to reveal what her own choice was.

“I have avoided the answer to this question,” she said. “I’ve been subtle about it, because it’s only tactful, decent, and diplomatic to say, ‘Well, you know, it could have been either one’.

“But I do honestly think, seeing how Ravi and Priya have played out and seeing what we’re doing now, where Denise is, it had to be Jack.”

Speaking of where Denise is at now, the character was recently diagnosed with acute myeloid leukaemia (AML), a rare form of blood cancer.

The storyline will play out over the year, with Parish stating that a “huge amount of work” went into the preparation.

“There’s been Zoom meetings and calls and more meetings and discussion”, she said.

“It’s been difficult, but this importance of it and what’s come to light since that’s aired is how many lives it’s touched.

“And I’ve always felt like a huge responsibility for when I was told we’d be tackling this, to handle it with as much sensitivity as possible, and I think so far we’ve been doing that with a lot of help. But yeah, I can’t say ‘enjoying’ it is the word, but as an actor it’s a challenge and that’s what we do this job for.”

Parish also briefly touched on the return of Libby Fox, saying that she was “just thrilled” that Belinda Owusu is back.