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Ian Beale

1 Overview
2 Family ties
3 Relationship history
4 Summary
5 Gallery
6 Related links

Overview

Ian Beale

Character:	Ian Beale
Played by:	Adam Woodyatt
Dates on screen:	19 February 1985 to present
More pictures:	Available at Walford Web

Family ties

Father:	Pete Beale
Mother:	Kathy Sullivan
Half brothers:	David Wicks · Ben Mitchell
Half sisters:	Donna Ludlow
Sons:	Peter Beale · Bobby Beale
Daughters:	Lucy Beale
Grandfathers:	Albert Beale · Dennis Hills
Grandmothers:	Lou Beale · Brenda Hills
Uncles:	Harry Beale · Ronnie Beale · Kenny Beale · Ted Hills · Colin Hills · Jonathan Hills
Aunts:	Maggie Flaherty · Pauline Fowler · Stephanie Hills
Great aunts:	Flo Medeemey · Doris Miller
Nephews:	Joe Wicks
Nieces:	Bianca Butcher · Karen Wicks
Great nephews:	Liam Butcher · Morgan Butcher
Great nieces:	Tiffany Butcher
Cousins:	Eamonn Flaherty · Conor Flaherty · John Flaherty · Tommy Flaherty · Elizabeth Beale · Mark Fowler · Michelle Fowler · Martin Fowler · Tony Hills · Sarah Hills
First cousins once removed:	Colette Flaherty · Eamonn Flaherty Jr · Declan Flaherty · Kylie Flaherty · Carl Flaherty · Vicki Fowler · Mark Fowler Jr · Rebecca Miller
Second cousins twice removed:	Nellie Ellis

Relationship history

Deceased wives:	Laura Beale
Ex-wives:	Cindy Beale · Melanie Owen · Jane Beale
Ex-girlfriends:	Tina Hopkins · Elizabeth Beale · Ronnie Bains

Summary

1985-1990

The only original cast member still remaining, Ian was the sensitive son of Pete and Kathy Beale. He wanted to become a chef, which caused friction between him and his father. With a keen eye for business, a teenaged Ian ran businesses with Kelvin Carpenter and Lofty Holloway in 1985 and Barry Clark in 1988. When Ali and Mehmet Osman owed Ian money, he took ownership of the café on Bridge Street.

Ian began dating market trader Cindy Williams in 1988, and they married in 1989, while Cindy was pregnant with old flame Simon Wicks's child. Cindy gave birth to baby Steven on Boxing Day 1989, and pretended Ian was his father. It was only when Simon and Cindy rekindled their romance behind Ian's back that she told Ian about Steven's true paternity. Ian crashed his van in a suicide bid, and Cindy, Simon and Steven fled to Devon. Ian followed them, and hatched a plan to get revenge on Simon. After tampering with the brakes on Simon's van, Simon crashed while driving with Steven in the van. When Ian's part in the crash came to light, Cindy, Simon and Steven left Walford in December 1990.

1991-1996

Ian started a catering business called The Meal Machine with Hattie Tavernier, and embarked on a relationship with older woman Ronnie Bains. He missed Cindy, and tracked her down to find that Simon had abandoned her. They reunited and in 1993, Cindy had Ian's twins Lucy and Peter, on the day his father Pete died. Ian opened a fish and chip shop in 1994, and Cindy had another affair with a lifeguard named Matt. In 1995, she started an affair with both Ian and Simon's half brother David. Ian's mother Kathy also married Phil Mitchell in 1995, which disappointed Ian as he hated Phil. In 1996, Cindy decided to leave Ian for David, and arranged to have Ian shot by hitman John Valecue, so she could have custody of the children. Ian was not killed by the shooting, and recovered. Cindy decided to flee the country with her children, but could not get to Lucy, so took Steven and Peter and left on the Eurostar.

1997-2005

Ian - aided by investigator Ros Thorne and Phil and Grant Mitchell - tracked Cindy and the boys down to Italy in 1997, and took the boys back to London. Refusing to be separated from her children, Cindy returned and got custody of the children, however, with Annie Palmer's help, Ian procured a confession from Valecue, which implicated Cindy and landed her in prison. She died a few months later giving birth to Cindy Jr.

Ian opened a bric-a-brac shop in 1999 and employed Melanie Healy to run it. They got together and Ian proposed, planning a millennium wedding. Mel cheated on him with Steve Owen, and began to get cold feet about the wedding. Ian, sensing this, told her that Lucy was ill with lymphoma, so Mel went through with the marriage, but left Ian at the reception when she discovered his lie.

Ian decided to become a property developer, and hired nanny Laura Dunn to look after his children. They began a fling amd when Ian was declared bankrupt, Laura saved him from ruin by buying the fish and chip shop. He proposed to her and they married in May 2001. Ian and Laura argued a lot and started seeing local prostitute Janine Butcher. Steven saw them together, told Laura, discovered his true paternity and moved to New Zealand to live with Simon. Ian secretly had a vasectomy, and when Laura fell pregnant and her brief infidelity with Garry Hobbs came to light, Ian threw her out. When Laura died in 2004, Pat Evans discovered that Ian was in fact baby Bobby's father; his vasectomy had yet to take effect when he had impregnated Laura. Ian gained custody of Bobby from a devastated Garry.

After trying (and failing) to start a romance with Kate Mitchell (the estranged wife of his nemesis, Phil), Ian met Jane Collins in the autumn of 2004, and they became romantically involved despite Jane's husband David being in a hospice suffering from Huntingdon's disease. When David died at the end of 2004, Ian and Jane were free to be together. Jane moved in with Ian and the kids.

2006-present

In 2006, Ian received word that his mother, Kathy, had died in South Africa. He flew out to bury her, and returned with his half brother, Ben. After becoming annoyed at Ian's attitude towards Phil, Ben's father, Jane embarked on an affair with Phil's brother Grant. When Phil revealed the affair to Ian, he proposed to Jane, then planned to humiliate her by jilting her at the altar, however, she discovered his plan and jilted him instead. They met in the torrential rain, wearing their wedding outfits and ended up physically fighting in the mud. They decided to give it another go and eventually married in 2007.

Also in 2007, Ian was stalked by a mystery person, pretending to be Cindy, back from the dead. The stalker lured Ian to an abandoned block of flats, where his identity was revealed to be Steven Beale, back from New Zealand. He held Ian hostage in the flat, meanwhile reuniting with Lucy and Peter and supporting Jane through Ian's disappearance. Weeks later, he took Lucy to the flat, and she summoned Jane. Steven was about to shoot himself, but in the struggle to get the gun from him, Jane was shot and had to be given a hysterectomy. Steven went into a psychiatric hospital, and eventually wormed his way back into the family. All was well until Lucy ran away in 2008. When it emerged that Steven was hiding Lucy and discouraging her from returning to the family, Ian disowned him and told him to never come back to Walford.

In 2008, Ian embarked on a new business venture - a catering company - with brother-in-law Christian Clarke and the Masood family. In 2009, Nick Cotton caused the café to blow up, and it was reopened with a 1950s American diner theme. Jane then shocked Ian by telling him that she wanted to adopt a baby of her own. He eventually agreed but Jane could see he was only trying to keep her sweet and left him, moving out of Walford. While she was away, Ian gave Phil a loan on the condition that if he wasn't repaid, he could have The Vic. He then got drunk with Janine and she recorded them having sex. Jane then returned to the family after Bobby temporarily went missing. Janine and Archie Mitchell blackmailed Ian with the recording, and forced him to sign the loan over to them so they could get control of The Vic. Archie then threatened Ian by saying that he still had the recording on his laptop, so on Christmas day, Ian broke into The Vic and stole the laptop, shortly before Archie was murdered. Peter and Tamwar Masood then discovered the file on the laptop, and Zainab played it to Jane, forcing Ian to confess all. Worried that he might become a suspect in Archie's murder, Ian and Jane took the laptop and dumped it in a canal. Janine then tried to blackmail Ian further, and when he didn't pay up, told the police about the laptop. Ian was arrested for Archie's murder and only cleared when Janine changed her story. He was given a community payback order for the theft of the laptop.

Ian was then shocked to find out that 16 year old Lucy was pregnant with Leon Small's baby. Lucy offered to give the baby to Jane to raise as her own, but changed her mind and got Ian to take her for an abortion. They lied to Jane that Lucy had had a miscarriage. When Peter heard of their lie from Leon's girlfriend Zsa Zsa, Ian arranged to Jane to visit her parents in Florida, fearing she would find out the truth. Ian also helped Lucy cheat on her GCSE exams, by giving her money to buy the papers in advance from Adam Best. When the school became suspicious of Lucy's grades, she admitted to cheating so that Peter wouldn't face an investigation, and left Walford to live with her grandmother, Bev. Jane found out about Lucy's abortion from Zsa Zsa just before Lucy left, but decided not to let on that she knew, instead plotting to steal money from Ian and gain custody of Bobby before leaving him. Ian arranged for Jane to adopt Bobby, but later discovered her plan to leave him. They decided to stay together, but Ian later started an affair with Glenda Mitchell. When Peter discovered the affair, he left Walford to stay with Lucy in Devon. Phil, who was also having an affair with Glenda, began blackmailing Ian, and when Ian arrived at R&R to pay Phil, he found him having a heart attack. He sent the paramedics Glenda had called away, intending on letting Phil die, but had a change of heart and called another ambulance. After another blackmail attempt from Glenda, Ian told Jane about the affair, and she ended their relationship, telling Ian she wasn't in love with him anymore. After Ian hired and escort, Jeanette, who posed as his new girlfriend, Jane vowed to take him for all she could get in the divorce, and thanks to Jimmie Broome, a lawyer hired for her by Phil, she got the café, which she later sold to Phil and Shirley. Ian then told Zainab about Jane and Masood's fling, and Jane left Walford. After Jane left, Ian tried to kiss Denise Fox at Bobby's birthday party, and lied about Jane's death in order to attract women, namely Cheryl Matthews, Fiona Walker and Rebecca.

Gallery

Adam Woodyatt as Ian Beale in 1986.

Ian Beale

Contents

Overview

Family ties

Relationship history

Summary

1985-1990

1991-1996

1997-2005

2006-present

Gallery

Related links

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