EastEnders fans were left shocked when they discovered how young Shirley Carter was when she became a grandmother during a recent episode of the BBC soap.
Shirley’s son Mick (Danny Dyer) finally opened up with Janine Butcher (Charlie Brooks) about why he has been reluctant to sleep with her during Thursday’s instalment of EastEnders.
Janine has been down about the pub landlord’s lack of intimate interest in her for weeks, but finally understood why last week as Mick opened up.
Mick finally revealed that he was sexually abused by his daughter Frankie's mum Katy Lewis (Simone Labhib) when he was just 12-years-old in heartbreaking scenes.
Amid the upsetting revelation, EastEnder fans took to Twitter to crunch the numbers and point out that Shirley, who is played by Linda Henry, must have become a young grandmother.
One wrote: “Just realised Shirley became a grandmother at 26. Surely that’s some type of record?”
Shirley was born in 1962, while Mick was born in 1977. While growing up, Mick believed he was the son of Stan Carter and Sylvie Smith, but in 2014 the bombshell dropped and he was told that Shirley, who he thought was his sister, was his mum.
Shirley gave birth to Mick when she was 15-years-old and Buster Briggs is his biological father.
Mick's sexual abuse storyline by his care worker Katy Lewis was revealed in 2020 and he later blamed Shirley for what happened because she put him into the care system.
Speaking about what happened to Janine on Wednesday night's episode, Mick said: "When I was a kid, 12, I was sexually abused.
"I was sexually abused by a woman, and that woman was Frankie's mum."
Mick continued: "Now some how I managed to lock this away in my brain and I don't know how I did that, but when Frankie came into my life about two years ago, all this stuff came pouring out.
"I don't know how to put it back, so the idea of having sex... I just can't do it. I want to Janine, I do, maybe I'm just broken."
This comes after the soap teased Janine’s sudden exit after her whirlwind romance with Mick falls apart.
Frankie noticed the bad atmosphere between the two of them and suggested that Mick act more romantically towards Janine and invite her to dinner.
But her plan backfired and their date at Walford East was a disaster. Will Janine leave Walford for good?
EastEnders airs Mondays to Thursdays at 7.30pm on BBC One
