Lola is told a fresh family secret by Emma from EastEnders as she promises to overcome her worries.

A conversation with Jay prompted her confession.

In tonight’s episode of EastEnders (March 21), Emma Harding (Patsy Kensit) promised to stick around and stand by daughter Lola Pearce-Brown’s (Danielle Harold) side.

As Lola’s fatal condition worsens, Emma finds it difficult to connect with her daughter after decades away. She also displeased Lexi (Isabella Brown) by interfering with her Mother’s Day plans with Lola.

But Lola was able to salvage the day after having a heart-to-heart with Lexi, and she even persuaded Emma to compete in a dance-off with wannabe performer Lexi. But as talk of Emma’s late mother, who she claimed passed away in a nursing home during a lockdown, continued, Emma became alarmed when Lexi pressed for additional information about her great-grandmother.

Asserting she had to check on a neighbor, Emma left the house, but Lola’s husband Jay Brown (Jamie Borthwick) was certain she was lying. Jay requested a conversation with Emma at the vehicle dealership, and Lola wanted to believe the best of her mother. Once there, he confronted her about her lie and questioned her about why she had abandoned his helpless wife.

Jay argued that Lola didn’t have time for Emma’s behavior, and Emma responded by saying that seeing Lola again had made her feel a lot of old scars. Then Jay gave her a choice, instructing her to either face her anxieties and stay or leave permanently.

Then Emma went to see Lola and told her that her own mother, who was also Lola’s grandmother, was an alcoholic who neglected and physically assaulted her. Emma continued by saying that because her mother had never been loved, she had fled the house when she was 16 to avoid growing up to be like her. However, the nursing home later got in touch with her before her mother passed away, before anyone had heard of Covid-19.