Kellie Bright isn’t the only EastEnders star in the family - as her husband has cropped up in Albert Square on a number of occasions.
The popular actress is finally back on our screens tonight, having spent the last few months on maternity leave after giving birth to her third child.
In typical EastEnders fashion, her character Linda Carter will make a surprise return to the BBC soap for Tina Carter’s funeral but ends up causing drunken chaos.
While Kellie has played Linda since 2013, it wasn’t actually her first EastEnders role as she appeared as a bridesmaid at Lofty and Michelle’s wedding back in 1986 when she was just 10-years-old.
The Strictly Come Dancing star, who has also appeared in Ali G Indahouse, The Upper Hand and Bad Girls, is married to fellow actor Paul Stocker.
Paul actually made an appearance in EastEnders back in 2016 as DS Howard South, a police detective who interrogated killer child Bobby Beale over the murder of his sister Lucy.
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Alerting viewers that her hubby would be popping up, Kellie tweeted: "For all u [EastEnders] fans, keep a special eye out 4 my hubby in tonight's ep!!
"Give you DS Howard South. Sadly Linda and Howard never meet," she added with a sad face emoji and a broken heart emoji.
But that’s not the only time Paul has been seen on the soap, as fans were stunned to see him in August last year during a robbery at the Queen Vic.
Viewers were initially confused over the lack of social distancing when a robber grabbed pregnant Linda and covered her mouth with his hand.
But some eagle-eyed fans realised who the attacker really was when the credits rolled, with one tweeting: “I thought I recognised the name of the thug who attacked Linda, it's Paul Stoker, Kellie Bright's husband!"
It’s not Paul’s only big acting role, as he has appeared as three different characters on Casualty in 2005, 2012 and 2014.
He has also been in Doctors twice and starred in the hit 2007 film Atonement, starring Keira Knightley and James McAvoy, as a crying soldier.
Kellie and Paul first met while they were starring in a play together when he was 24-years-old and he was 31.
The EastEnders actress has previously discussed her concerns about their seven-year age gap, admitting she feared Paul would “resent” her if the age difference affected their family plans.
She told OK! Magazine: "Reality kicked in. I was 31 and wanted to have kids, and Paul was 24 and didn’t at the time. I felt it wasn’t fair on Paul - I worried he’d resent me."
However, they continued to have a happy relationship and Kellie gave birth to their first son, Freddy, in December 2011.
The couple got married in July 2014 in the tiny hamlet of Trelill, Cornwall at a star-studded bash.
Co-star Danny Dyer, who plays Kellie’s on-screen husband Mick, was present at the joyous occasion along with his wife Joanne Mas.
Maddy Hill and Sam Strike, who starred as her children Nancy and Johnny in the soap, also attended along with then EastEnders Executive Producer Dominic Treadwell-Collins.
Kellie had their second son, Gene, in November 2016 and thanked her appearance on Strictly Come Dancing with pro partner Kevin Clifton for helping.
While Paul explained it “took us ages”, Kellie added: “I think Strictly helped us as it took the focus off trying and the fact I was nearly 40.”
The Linda Carter actress wasn’t expecting her labour to happen as quickly as it did and almost gave birth in the car.
"I was so uncomfortable in the car and the contractions were coming quite quickly by that point," she recalled.
"But of course it was school run time so we got stuck in traffic. When we arrived at the hospital, a midwife could see I was in established labour and took me straight to a delivery room. About 20 minutes after our arrival at 9am, my waters broke!"
Kellie knew she didn’t want to stop at two kids, telling OK! after Gene’s birth: "I said right away in the delivery room that I wanted another baby!
"I don’t feel ready to shut the door on motherhood just yet. But if we do have another one, it won’t be immediately."
After undergoing IVF, Kellie announced she was expecting their third ‘miracle’ child and gave birth to bak Rudy in September last year.
Kellie hit back at critics who cruelly lashed out at her for having a third child at the age of 45, saying if she “was a man” then “no one would bat an eyelid”.
"Don’t forget my husband is much younger than me,” she explained to OK! magazine.
“He's in his thirties, so he's still running around after the kids, which is great. We met when I was 31 and I didn't want to jump straight into having kids.”
Kellie had become pregnant naturally with Freddy but struggled a second time around and underwent IVF to conceive Gene.
Three extra embryos were frozen for potential use later down the line and, following failed attempts at pregnancy with two of them, her dreams came true when she conceived her “miracle”.
Last October she told The Mirror: “I know it’s not for everyone and there’s millions of women my age thinking, ‘God I wouldn’t want to go back to that.’ But for me, I just never had that feeling of being done with having children. It’s a really special and unique thing.
“I do feel very lucky I’ve got to experience it again. But now, 100%, I feel the family is complete.”
Kellie has confessed she was "slightly apprehensive" about her return to EastEnders - with Linda discovering her estranged husband Mick is having a romance with Janine Butcher.
She returns to the Square ahead of Tina Carter's funeral and preview pictures from filming show her hitting the bottle as she struggles with her alcohol addiction.
"Coming back after a break is always a little bit scary. I definitely had some nerves at the beginning but I also felt comfortable really quickly because I am with people who I love, who are like my family," she said.
"The slight apprehension about coming back disappeared quickly and I can truly say I’ve loved being back at work."
Linda is still battling her drink demons and Kellie believes she needs to stop for good before it’s too late.
Asked what advice she would give to her character, she explained: "What I would say to her is look, the first thing you need to do is stop drinking because you cannot fix anything else while you are still drinking.
"Everything that happens will balloon and morph into all sorts of dramas while you are drinking because you will make it so. So really and truly her drinking needs to be addressed before anything else."
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