EastEnders plot made mother confess how she was jailed for snatching a baby

[kuzkasate]

It was a dark secret that ­Annette Edwards had kept to herself for more than four decades.

But as she watched the harrowing scenes in the controversial baby-swap story in EastEnders, she knew it was time to tell her family the shocking truth.

More than 6,000 angry viewers ­complained that the plot was ­offensive, after watching Ronnie ­Branning, played by Samantha Womack, swap her dead baby son for barmaid Kat Moon’s new-born boy.

But for Annette, the scenes were a ­terrible reminder of how the overwhelming grief of suffering a miscarriage as a teenager led to her going to jail for snatching another woman’s baby.

“When I saw Ronnie lift Kat’s baby out of the cot and hold him, I remembered just how I had felt when I picked up the baby I took,” says Annette, 59.

“I was watching the episode with my husband Rob, who I’ve been with for 20 years and yet had never told what I’d done. I was so upset.

“I’ve raised 10 children of my own and so I know how precious they are. And I know what it’s like to lose a child, as my son Liam was killed at the age of 32 in a car accident four years ago. So what I did to the mum of the baby I took is not something I will ever forget.

“It’s something I buried because I have never been able to understand why I did it. My mum and my nan, who have both since died, knew because I lived with them at the time, as did my first husband.

“But it’s always haunted me that I’d die without ­being able to tell Rob and my children what ­happened and that they’d find out and never hear my version of events.

“The EastEnders story was ­­life-­changing. It made me confront my past.”

Annette was 16 and going out with her first boyfriend Neil, a 20-year-old car ­salesman, when she became pregnant in 1967. They decided to get married but a month before the ceremony, ­Annette suffered a miscarriage.

“Neil and I loved each other and were looking forward to the baby,” she says. “We’d rented a house together and had bought the cot and bedding. I was four months pregnant when I miscarried. I was so devastated I decided not to tell anyone. When my bump started to go down, I stuffed a rolled-up jumper under my dress.

“I didn’t think about what I was doing. In the 60s, post-natal depression wasn’t really recognised as a psychiatric condition as it is now.”

The trauma had such an impact on her mental state that she continued buying baby clothes. She even stuffed a jumper under her suit to say her wedding vows.

­At the time they lived on the outskirts of Birmingham, and one day she went out for a walk. “There was a clinic on the corner where mums used to take their babies to be weighed and I saw about five prams ­outside,” she says. “In those days, it wasn’t unusual to see babies left in their prams.

“There was a new-born baby in one I looked in. I don’t ­remember even noticing whether it was a boy or a girl but I just lifted it up in a ­blanket and hugged it.

So for those who said that the storyline is sick and unrealistic, here you go.

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[GommeInc]

Still kinda sick though My main quarrel with the plot was Dot didn't/doesn't recognise the baby, Alfie didn't notice a difference and Kat didn't make her feelings known. It was unrealistic (the way EastEnders portrayed it), but post-natal depression where a mother may steal a baby is real

[kuzkasate]

Still kinda sick though My main quarrel with the plot was Dot didn't/doesn't recognise the baby, Alfie didn't notice a difference and Kat didn't make her feelings known. It was unrealistic (the way EastEnders portrayed it), but post-natal depression where a mother may steal a baby is real

Yeah but Dot's old and she said herself when she came to see him "Oh dont they change fast" or something because she thought the baby did look different, Alfie didnt notice the difference because he only glanced at it a few times tbh and when K+A came to the hospital Kat screamed that it wasnt her baby.

[Nikki]

I can imagine me doing something like this..
I feel sorry for the woman, she lost her baby and was jailed for a moment of madness. Cant imagine how that woman told her children.

[lawrawrrr]

Babies change incredibly quickly - it's not surprising that no-one recognised *insert baby's name here - I forgot*, and with Kat in that state, if he had died, she would be in a state of shock - denial maybe, which would make her shout the same thing?

As far-fetched as the storyline may seem, there is more often than not going to be some sort of relation to real life in ever plot, or it wouldn't be even slightly realistic. The writers have really "soaped-up" this plot though, I can't imagine it being possible seeing the true mother every day, and all the event that have happened since.

And I also think that after the scene in the Vic, someone would be a little bit suspicious...

[kuzkasate]

Babies change incredibly quickly - it's not surprising that no-one recognised *insert baby's name here - I forgot*, and with Kat in that state, if he had died, she would be in a state of shock - denial maybe, which would make her shout the same thing?

As far-fetched as the storyline may seem, there is more often than not going to be some sort of relation to real life in ever plot, or it wouldn't be even slightly realistic. The writers have really "soaped-up" this plot though, I can't imagine it being possible seeing the true mother every day, and all the event that have happened since.

And I also think that after the scene in the Vic, someone would be a little bit suspicious...

I agree but I think that after the scene at the Vic, Jean sort of clocked on but no-one would listen to the madwoman. And tbh everyone knew that Ronnie had troubles and was acting a bit wierd and I dont think anyone would of thought that Ronnie was capable of such a thing so thats why noone really clocked on, it may of crossed someone elses mind, but it would be quite stupid to actually believe it.

[e5]

It's not the best story line is it? lets face it. can't argue that taking a baby is any what the type of story line eastenders should show.

[GommeInc]

Yeah but Dot's old and she said herself when she came to see him "Oh dont they change fast" or something because she thought the baby did look different, Alfie didnt notice the difference because he only glanced at it a few times tbh and when K+A came to the hospital Kat screamed that it wasnt her baby.

Indeed, but it just went on the edge of being a bit too surreal that no-one paid much attention, and Dot is quite aware for someone who looks like she's entering her 90s Plus I feel sorry for Ronnie (the character), she's lost so many children

And babies don't change THAT quickly

[kuzkasate]

It's not the best story line is it? lets face it. can't argue that taking a baby is any what the type of story line eastenders should show.

Why not? It is evil yeah, but its interesting...

Indeed, but it just went on the edge of being a bit too surreal that no-one paid much attention, and Dot is quite aware for someone who looks like she's entering her 90s Plus I feel sorry for Ronnie (the character), she's lost so many children

And babies don't change THAT quickly

Dot's too old and even if she did, no-one will listen to her lol - and Ronnie's life sucks so bad!
But seriously, babies changed ALOT in a very short space of time.

[dbgtz]

I wonder if any peadofiles were brought to light during whitneys abuse period by tony lol :L

But yeah, sick as hell. Would be worse if she raised the child. Did she raise the child?!?