{"id":558696,"date":"2026-08-04T12:06:10","date_gmt":"2026-08-04T12:06:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/558696\/"},"modified":"2026-08-04T12:06:10","modified_gmt":"2026-08-04T12:06:10","slug":"eastenders-airs-heartbreaking-cliffhanger-for-lauren-beale","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/558696\/","title":{"rendered":"EastEnders airs heartbreaking cliffhanger for Lauren Beale"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Lauren Beale (Jacqueline Jossa) has been left devastated in <a href=\"http:\/\/radiotimes.com\/tv\/soaps\/eastenders\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">EastEnders<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>It comes after husband Peter (Thomas Law) <a href=\"https:\/\/www.radiotimes.com\/tv\/soaps\/eastenders\/eastenders-peter-beale-discovery-walford-teens-secrets-revealed-bbc-iplayer-newsupdate\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">stumbled in<\/a> on the latest of her secret meetings with Mark Fowler (Stephen Aaron-Sipple), and demanded answers.<\/p>\n<p>As viewers know, for months, the pair have been fixing up stolen cars and then flogging them through the car lot. On a number of occasions, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.radiotimes.com\/tv\/soaps\/eastenders\/eastenders-lauren-beale-mark-fowler-twist-attacked-newsupdate\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">he&#8217;s tried to test her loyalty<\/a>, and when their business relationship turned romantic, Lauren insisted that they must bring an end to it.<\/p>\n<p>Mark immediately jumped into bed with another woman, Jack Branning&#8217;s (Scott Maslen) <a href=\"https:\/\/www.radiotimes.com\/tv\/soaps\/eastenders\/eastenders-amy-matthews-rita-jack-branning-newsupdate\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">colleague Rita (Amy Matthews)<\/a>, in a bid to make her jealous. He even decided to stoke the fire further by showing Rita one of their stolen cars, infuriating Lauren.<\/p>\n<p>While they bickered, Peter watched from afar and his interest was piqued.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"image__img\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/1785845169_242_568877-f7ae1ba.jpg\" alt=\"Lauren and Mark have an argument beside a car in EastEnders\" data-item-name=\"Lauren and Mark have an argument beside a car in EastEnders\" title=\"568877,TITLE:Eastenders\" style=\"aspect-ratio:1 \/ 0.6574830726126547;object-fit:contain\" loading=\"lazy\" width=\"700\" height=\"460.2381508288583\" data-testid=\"image-img\"\/><\/p>\n<p>Stephen Aaron-Sipple as Mark Fowler and Jacqueline Jossa as Lauren Beale.\u00a0BBC\/Jack Barnes\/Kieron McCarron<\/p>\n<p>That night, when Lauren briefly returned home from work, he nosied at a number of intriguing texts on her phone and then followed her to The Boxing Den.<\/p>\n<p>Lauren and Mark were almost in another passionate embrace, until Peter charged through the door and they withdrew.<\/p>\n<p>In today&#8217;s episode, Lauren quickly tried to deflect Peter&#8217;s questions and said she&#8217;d come to meet Mark to talk about a car.<\/p>\n<p>Peter insisted that she stop treating him &#8220;like an idiot&#8221;, and asked whether she&#8217;d been cheating.<\/p>\n<p>With Mark jumping into defend Lauren, Peter ushered her home and asked her to be honest. Backed into a corner, she admitted that they&#8217;d been dealing in stolen cars.<\/p>\n<p>Peter was disgusted to realise that she&#8217;d lied to him for months, saying that she&#8217;d &#8220;broken&#8221; their family.<\/p>\n<p>She pleaded for his forgiveness \u2013 but they were interrupted by her dad Max Branning (Jake Wood) and his mum Cindy Beale (Michelle Collins).<\/p>\n<p>They were equally as enraged, and said that Mark should stay well away from the car lot.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"image__img\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/1785845170_838_568896-65a7c53.jpg\" alt=\"Peter looks annoyed in a scene from EastEnders\" data-item-name=\"Peter looks annoyed in a scene from EastEnders\" title=\"568896,TITLE:Eastenders\" style=\"aspect-ratio:1 \/ 0.6665888395984123;object-fit:contain\" loading=\"lazy\" width=\"700\" height=\"466.6121877188886\" data-testid=\"image-img\"\/><\/p>\n<p>Thomas Law as Peter Beale.\u00a0BBC\/Jack Barnes\/Kieron McCarron<\/p>\n<p>The revelation then caused friction between Max and Cindy, who each tried to defend their respective child.<\/p>\n<p>Lauren was hopeful that, now her secret was out in the open, they&#8217;d be able to put everything behind them and move forward. However, Peter had already packed her bag and asked her to leave.<\/p>\n<p>He said that if she cared about their family, she&#8217;d go and stay with cousin Penny Branning (Kitty Castledine).<\/p>\n<p>Will Lauren ever be able to win Peter back?<\/p>\n<p>Read more:<\/p>\n<p>Visit our dedicated <a title=\"https:\/\/www.radiotimes.com\/tv\/soaps\/eastenders\/\" href=\"https:\/\/www.radiotimes.com\/tv\/soaps\/eastenders\/\" data-outlook-id=\"407a7332-d02c-42a9-a1ac-e105b2f5e691\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">EastEnders<\/a> page for all the latest news, interviews and spoilers.<\/p>\n<p>Add EastEnders to your watchlist on the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.radiotimes.com\/download-the-app\/?af_xp=custom&amp;pid=website&amp;c=editorial_content&amp;is_retargeting=true&amp;af_reengagement_window=30d\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Radio Times: What to Watch app<\/a> \u2013 download now for daily TV recommendations, features and more.<\/p>\n<p>Check out more of our <a href=\"https:\/\/www.radiotimes.com\/tv\/soaps\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\" data-saferedirecturl=\"https:\/\/www.google.com\/url?q=https:\/\/www.radiotimes.com\/tv\/soaps\/&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1753171828766000&amp;usg=AOvVaw0CQWGoiSAYvZvTD1dZ4eAs\">Soaps<\/a> coverage or visit our <a href=\"https:\/\/www.radiotimes.com\/tv\/tv-listings\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\" data-saferedirecturl=\"https:\/\/www.google.com\/url?q=https:\/\/www.radiotimes.com\/tv\/tv-listings\/&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1753171828766000&amp;usg=AOvVaw32C9VRDQ0MNT5CInEGyMAm\">TV Guide<\/a> and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.radiotimes.com\/streaming-guide\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\" data-saferedirecturl=\"https:\/\/www.google.com\/url?q=https:\/\/www.radiotimes.com\/streaming-guide\/&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1753171828766000&amp;usg=AOvVaw2_j9koCLWjp1srEzK9td3T\">Streaming Guide <\/a>to find out what&#8217;s on. For more TV recommendations and reviews, listen to <a title=\"https:\/\/www.radiotimes.com\/audio\/podcasts\/\" href=\"https:\/\/www.radiotimes.com\/audio\/podcasts\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\" data-saferedirecturl=\"https:\/\/www.google.com\/url?q=https:\/\/www.radiotimes.com\/audio\/podcasts\/&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1753171828766000&amp;usg=AOvVaw3wbAcSTIv74D2RLzOpEtYE\">The Radio Times Podcast<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Lauren Beale (Jacqueline Jossa) has been left devastated in EastEnders. It comes after husband Peter (Thomas Law) stumbled&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":558697,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[29],"tags":[156,111,139,69,437],"class_list":["post-558696","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-tv","tag-entertainment","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-tv"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/558696","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=558696"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/558696\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/558697"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=558696"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=558696"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=558696"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}