Pls can someone enlighten me on this as that must be the time when I didn't watch much of EE and so I must have missed something.

I know that Jane is only an adopted mother to Bobby. At the same time I thought that Ian is also not his real father.

If I remember it right his mother was Laura but that Laura had a drunken sexual encounter in the toilet in the bar formerly owned by Den or Sharon or someone.

So pls who is Bobby's father exactly?

Laura slept with Gary - the guy Lynne Slater used to be married to. I can't remember if it was a one off or they had a full blown affair. Initially, Gary thought the baby was his but it was in fact revealed to be Ian's.

So Ian is the biological father of Bobby

Ian is his father. He refused to believed Laura at first because he had a vasectomy but only realised after Laura died.

Ian Beale and his 3rd wife Laura.

Laura did have a ONS with Garry Hobbns so believed that he was the father of her expected baby after Ian threw her out saying she couldn't be pregnant by him as he'd had a vasectomy. However, Bobby had to have some kind of blood test which revealed Garry couldn't be his Dad but she told neither him or Ian. She did tell Pat.

Pat revealed this after Laura's death and Ian went to see a Doctor who advised that sperm can still be viable for several weeks after a vasectomy so he could be the father. Blood or DNA tests then confirmed that he was and took back custody.

Bobby was only a few months old when Laura died and Jane got together with Ian when he was about 18 months so Bobby has only ever known Jane as his mother and she did adopt him so legally she is his mother, not just step mother as she is to Peter.

Beelzebub (mysteriously shortened to Beale) and Katie Hopkins.

Ian throwing Laura out and the reveal that Garry was the person she'd slept with was Xmas Day 2002 if you want to check it out - assuming it is on YouTube of course. Very good episode, had all that, Mo and Billy marrying and Jamie dying.

Not sure exactly when Laura died but it must have been late 2003 or early 2004. I'm sure she had already died before Jane arrived with was the Fairground disaster early Summer 2004.

Thank you everyone!

There was a precursor to Kat's "who's the shagger" storyline when Laura fell pregnant in 2002, as we didn't know for quite some time who Laura had actually slept with on that night. If I recall correctly, Gary Hobbs, Paul Trueman and at least one other man was in the frame. Laura later revealed she had slept with Gary and believed he was the baby's father.

Laura died (around April 2004) before she got a chance to tell Ian he was the real father, meanwhile Gary was granted custody of the baby. Pat and Den later told Ian that he was Bobby's father, and after a DNA test to confirm Gary reluctantly gave Bobby back to Ian.

I cannot say I was sad to see Laura go, she was so miserable even for EastEnders standards. She couldn't understand why Ian treated her like dirt when they were married. But he had always treated her that way, she was employed as his nanny and he used her for the occasional shag and only married her when she came into a bit of money.

30 April 2004 kitkat