EastEnders spoilers follow.

EastEnders’ Penny Branning faces huge baby drama next week when she makes an alarming discovery about her pregnancy. Learning she’s further along than she thought, Penny realises Vinny Panesar might not be the dad – and she could be carrying Harry Mitchell’s child!

“Talk about a plot twist,” says our Walford insider. “Penny’s taken some convincing to accept Vinny as a co-parent, as they were never that serious.

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BBC

vinny panesar, eastenders

BBC

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“Just as she’s seeing him as decent dad material, it turns out there’s a chance the baby’s not even his. Before she can figure out how to tell him, someone else gets wind of the info and starts blackmailing her…”

Penny and Vinny are about to attend their baby’s first scan, but the prospective father is called away on business. While the independent Penny isn’t fussed and arranges to meet him at the hospital later, Priya lays into Vinny about his priorities, not realising that he is desperately trying to secure funding for the shop he’s bought for Penny.

The sonographer starts the scan without Vinny, and informs a perplexed Penny about some very unexpected news – she’s further along in her pregnancy than she thought she was! Has she got her dates wrong, or is there another explanation?

Vinny eventually arrives, but Penny keeps quiet about what she’s learnt. Later on, Penny privately makes a huge admission to Lauren and Oscar: if her child was conceived before she hooked up with Vinny at New Year, it’s possible that Harry is the dad…

“While Penny digests her baby bombshell, elsewhere Harry is having a conversation with Nicola about the fact that Gina doesn’t want kids,” reveals our source.

“He also confesses he got it on with old flame Penny late last year, but it was strictly a one-off, and she subsequently got together with Vinny. This leaves Nicola intrigued…”

oscar branning, penny branning, lauren branning, eastenders

BBC

nicola mitchell, penny branning, eastenders

BBC

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Having earlier witnessed Penny acting suspiciously in discussions about her future with Vinny, Nicola confronts her. Revealing she knows about her hook-up with Harry, Nicola demands Penny take a DNA test – or she’ll expose her secret!

Nicola is forced to pause her blackmail when she unexpectedly goes into labour, but how long before Penny’s parenting dilemma goes public?

EastEnders airs on Mondays – Thursdays at 7.30pm on BBC One. The show also streams on BBC iPlayer, where most episodes drop early at 6am ahead of their TV broadcast.

Read more EastEnders spoilers on our dedicated homepage

For exclusive soap star interviews, gossip, spoilers and theories every week, don’t miss the Soap Scoop podcast from Inside Soap magazine. The latest episode delves into next week’s soap spoilers for EastEnders, Coronation Street and Emmerdale- from Jodie’s latest move in Weatherfield, to Oscar’s new romance on the Square!