Because a fair few people on Walford Web kindergarten are wondering about Max and Tanya's initial connection, their affair etc and, especially, if she knew if he were married, let me just clarify this.
As Kate and Sey have pointed out, the Brannings, as a whole, have been retconned so many times to the nth degree, it's hard to know what's what; but the Max-Tanya thing has been one of the backstories the least retconned.
For example, did you know that, originally, Derek, Max and Jack were all Carol's older brothers? This was established when Carol first returned to the Square and David was presented with the fact that Bianca was his daughter. Reference to the bruvs being older than Carol was made in the presence of those avenging Beale angels, Pauline and Pat, both of whom were shocked to find that Pete Beale, David's dad, unwittingly paid for what should have been Carol's abortion.
Be that as it may, David remarked about having been beaten up by Carol's three older brothers.
Also, in 1995, it was established that April was the oldest of the Branning siblings, and when we first saw Derek in 1996, he was described, disdainfully, by Carol, as a 32 year-old loser, unmarried and living at home with Reenie and Jim. Do your maths. If Derek were 32 in 1996, he'd be 48 now. In 1996, there was no Joey, no Alice (who would have been two) and no Mrs Derek.
Also, at April's non-wedding, there appeared two shadowy, skin-headed other Branning Brothers - presumably, Max and Jack.
In 2012, we now have Derek as the 52 year-old eldest Branning sibling, who's been married, fathered two children and who's divorced his wife.
Go figure.
But back to Max and Tanya.
Max was married to Rachel when he was 18 and she was 17. Max got Rachel pregnant. When he was 24 and Bradley was six, and when Max had hair, he went for a haircut at a salon where an 18 year-old Tanya was working as a hairdresser.
He chatted her up and they started sleeping together. At first, she didn't know he was married, but as referenced both in the two-handed episode in the Spring of 2007 when Max told Tanya about Jim pretending to bury him alive, and also in the mega-argument which followed the reveal of Stax, Tanya tried to shift blame for her involvement with Max onto him, by saying she never knew he was married. Max, on both occasions, replied that once she'd known, it didn't stop her from pursuing him, that she doubled down in the pursuit.
In fact, Max led the impression that Tanya deliberately got pregnant to snare Max, and once he'd left Rachel, she made him promise to always put her children first. Of course, Rachel made it easier for him by refusing him access to Bradley, and what did Max do? He just walked away.
This is one of the reasons I say the Brannings are such losers. Can you imagine a Mitchell walking away from one of his children? Children are taken away from the Mitchells, yes - reference Louise and Phil and Grant's unknown son by Michelle Fowler - but the Brannings walk away from their sprogs.
Max never fought for Bradley, Jack positively avoids his children and Derek didn't even know he had a daughter.
And also for the record, Tanya never babysat Bradley. That was a story that got confused with Coronation Street and Danny Baldwin's backstory at the time. Coincidentally, Corrie had introduced Danny Baldwin, Mike's nephew-cum-son, and his second wife Frankie. Danny was Max Branning with hair, and Frankie had been the family's teenaged babysitter, when they started an affair. The couple even came complete with a Rachel-esque alcoholic ex-wife. The story of the babysitter becoming the mistress becoming the wife originated there.
Tanya was never the babysitter.
Lauren was born in March 1994. Max and Tanya were married in August 1994. Reenie and Jim never attended the wedding. They disapproved of Max abandoning his wife and son for another woman, and they never approved of Tanya. From the time they married, Max never lived around his family, until he found that Bradley was living with Jim in Walford and moved back to be near his son.
As Kate and Sey have pointed out, the Brannings, as a whole, have been retconned so many times to the nth degree, it's hard to know what's what; but the Max-Tanya thing has been one of the backstories the least retconned.
For example, did you know that, originally, Derek, Max and Jack were all Carol's older brothers? This was established when Carol first returned to the Square and David was presented with the fact that Bianca was his daughter. Reference to the bruvs being older than Carol was made in the presence of those avenging Beale angels, Pauline and Pat, both of whom were shocked to find that Pete Beale, David's dad, unwittingly paid for what should have been Carol's abortion.
Be that as it may, David remarked about having been beaten up by Carol's three older brothers.
Also, in 1995, it was established that April was the oldest of the Branning siblings, and when we first saw Derek in 1996, he was described, disdainfully, by Carol, as a 32 year-old loser, unmarried and living at home with Reenie and Jim. Do your maths. If Derek were 32 in 1996, he'd be 48 now. In 1996, there was no Joey, no Alice (who would have been two) and no Mrs Derek.
Also, at April's non-wedding, there appeared two shadowy, skin-headed other Branning Brothers - presumably, Max and Jack.
In 2012, we now have Derek as the 52 year-old eldest Branning sibling, who's been married, fathered two children and who's divorced his wife.
Go figure.
But back to Max and Tanya.
Max was married to Rachel when he was 18 and she was 17. Max got Rachel pregnant. When he was 24 and Bradley was six, and when Max had hair, he went for a haircut at a salon where an 18 year-old Tanya was working as a hairdresser.
He chatted her up and they started sleeping together. At first, she didn't know he was married, but as referenced both in the two-handed episode in the Spring of 2007 when Max told Tanya about Jim pretending to bury him alive, and also in the mega-argument which followed the reveal of Stax, Tanya tried to shift blame for her involvement with Max onto him, by saying she never knew he was married. Max, on both occasions, replied that once she'd known, it didn't stop her from pursuing him, that she doubled down in the pursuit.
In fact, Max led the impression that Tanya deliberately got pregnant to snare Max, and once he'd left Rachel, she made him promise to always put her children first. Of course, Rachel made it easier for him by refusing him access to Bradley, and what did Max do? He just walked away.
This is one of the reasons I say the Brannings are such losers. Can you imagine a Mitchell walking away from one of his children? Children are taken away from the Mitchells, yes - reference Louise and Phil and Grant's unknown son by Michelle Fowler - but the Brannings walk away from their sprogs.
Max never fought for Bradley, Jack positively avoids his children and Derek didn't even know he had a daughter.
And also for the record, Tanya never babysat Bradley. That was a story that got confused with Coronation Street and Danny Baldwin's backstory at the time. Coincidentally, Corrie had introduced Danny Baldwin, Mike's nephew-cum-son, and his second wife Frankie. Danny was Max Branning with hair, and Frankie had been the family's teenaged babysitter, when they started an affair. The couple even came complete with a Rachel-esque alcoholic ex-wife. The story of the babysitter becoming the mistress becoming the wife originated there.
Tanya was never the babysitter.
Lauren was born in March 1994. Max and Tanya were married in August 1994. Reenie and Jim never attended the wedding. They disapproved of Max abandoning his wife and son for another woman, and they never approved of Tanya. From the time they married, Max never lived around his family, until he found that Bradley was living with Jim in Walford and moved back to be near his son.
With all the Retconning thats happening in EastEnders wed be forgiven for thinking the show is written largely by amateurs..and people who havent the brains to understand what their writing.....oh...!
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