Stacey Slater has been a favourite among EastEnders for a long time and, in recent episodes, she has been back at the forefront of the drama. The character, played by Lacey Turner in the BBC One soap, was left stunned when she was told her daughter, Lily, was pregnant.
The schoolgirl was rushed to hospital after collapsing during a New Year's Eve party at her family home. Stacey's mum, Jean, also collapsed as did Eve Unwin. It was later confirmed that their sudden ill health was caused by a carbon monoxide leak at home and, subsequently, the whole family had to go to hospital to be checked out.
However, Stacey wasn't prepared to learn from tests that her daughter was pregnant - and has since discovered that Ricky Jr is the father. It's just the latest in a long line of big storylines actress Lacey has had to tackle as her Walford alter-ego.
The actress joined the soap back in 2004, when 15-year-old Stacey arrived on the square to live with her great-uncle Charlie and adoptive grandmother Mo after being thrown out by her mother, Jean. But her behaviour led to her being sent back to Jean before she eventually returned and made Walford her home.
Ever since, Stacey has tackled everything from an affair with her husband Bradley's dad, Max Branning, to being diagnosed with bipolar disorder and killing Archie Mitchell. Lacey left the role of Stacey in 2010. While away from the soap, she was cast as Lia Shaman in the third series of Being Human, and appeared in a one-off 90-minute BBC drama titled Our Girl, which later turned into a series with Lacey playing army recruit Molly.
Lacey reprised her role of Stacey in EastEnders four years later, in 2014, and was soon thrust into what became a highly acclaimed postpartum psychosis storyline.
Things could have been different for Lacey, as she originally auditioned for the role of Demi Miller. But she was turned down for the short-lived part of Darren Miller's twin sister Demi, played by Shana Swash, the real-life sister of Joe Swash, who played Mickey Miller in the soap.
Lacey previously told the TV Times: "I might not have been here now if I’d got that part. I remember them ringing me to tell me I hadn’t got it and I went to bed upset. Now I’m so happy I got the chance to play Stacey because she’s a character who can be anywhere, with anyone and do anything."
And what Lacey said couldn't have been more correct as her accolades include four National Television Awards, six British Soap Awards and eight Inside Soap Awards.
Luckily for Lacey, who trained at the Sylvia Young Theatre School, which boasts many celebrity alumni, her life away from the soap is a lot less dramatic. And she's not the only actress in her family. Lacey's two younger sisters – Lily Harvey and Daisy Turner – made their TV debuts around the time Lacey took a break from EastEnders in 2010.
As she left, Lily joined the cast as Shenice Quinn – the daughter of Kat Slater’s pal Martine. The then nine-year-old guest starred on the soap until August 2011, when she was asked to join the cast full-time, before leaving in 2012. Daisy, meanwhile, was 20 when she joined Channel 4 soap Hollyoaks in 2011, where she starred as Jenny Houston. But her time on the show was cut short when her character was bumped off by serial killer Silas, as part of the long-running plot line.
As for Lacey's love life, the 34-year-old married her now-husband Matt Kay in a private ceremony in Ibiza in September 2017. The loved-up pair have been together since they were 15-years-old. The couple got engaged in September 2016 after Matt, who reportedly owns a barber shop in London, proposed on a Gondola while on a romantic trip to Venice. A year later they tied the knot on the White Island and several of Lacey's co-stars were in attendance, including the late Barbara Windsor, James Bye, and Jake Wood.
Lacey and Matt then welcomed their first child, a girl, in 2019 and Lacey gave birth to the couple's second child, a boy, in 2021. And they both have unique names - Dusty and Trilby. The arrival of her two children comes after Lacey spoke about her previous pregnancies, which ended in miscarriage.
She has previously shared how she thinks she would never have become a mother had she not turned to private medicine to find out why she had two miscarriages. Lacey, who returned to work the day after her first miscarriage, told The Sun how there was no aftercare after she lost her baby.
But she described herself as 'lucky' to be able to go and see a private specialist and believes all women in her situation should have that support. She was given the hormone progesterone when she went private, which can help the body hold on to a pregnancy.
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