Denise Fox | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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EastEnders character | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Portrayed by | Diane Parish | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Duration | 2006–present | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
First appearance | Episode 3150 11 May 2006 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Classification | Present; regular | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Introduced by | Kate Harwood | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Spin-off appearances |
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Denise Fox (previously Wicks and Johnson) is a fictional character from the BBC soap opera EastEnders, played by Diane Parish. She made her first appearance on 11 May 2006 and temporarily left EastEnders in early 2008 to give birth to her second child. Her leave-taking had coincided with the departures of Matt Di Angelo (Dean Wicks), Phil Daniels (Kevin Wicks) and Kellie Shirley (Carly Wicks). She returned to Walford on 6 June 2008. This is Parish's second role in EastEnders, as she previously played singer Lola Christie in 1998.
Introduced as a single mother to Chelsea Fox (Tiana Benjamin) and Libby Fox (Belinda Owusu), the latter of whom was conceived from a vituperative marriage, Denise has gone on to marry three additional times. Firstly, to Kevin in 2007, who dies months later, to Lucas Johnson (Don Gilet) in 2009, with them divorcing two years later after he is imprisoned for murdering their ex-spouses respectively, and then to Jack Branning (Scott Maslen) in 2021. She also embarks on a loveless engagement to Ian Beale (Adam Woodyatt), flings with younger men Fatboy (Ricky Norwood), Kush Kazemi (Davood Ghadami) and Ravi Gulati (Aaron Thiara) and a drunken one-night stand with Phil Mitchell (Steve McFadden) which results in a late in life pregnancy and the birth of a son, Raymond Dawkins. Other storylines involving Denise include surviving a bus crash, losing her job, descending into poverty, igniting a feud with Phil's sister and Jack's ex-partner, Sam Mitchell (Kim Medcalf), struggling with family issues such as her stepdaughter Amy Mitchell's (Ellie Dadd) self-harming and her stepson Ricky Mitchell (Frankie Day) becoming a father at twelve-years-old, assaulting Nish Panesar (Navin Chowdhry) with a champagne bottle and covering up the murder of Keanu Taylor (Danny Walters) during "The Six" storyline, and being sectioned after developing psychosis due to Keanu’s murder.