As Lola Pearce (Danielle Harold) prepares for her upcoming wedding to Jay (Jamie Borthwick) in EastEnders, her mind turns to who she wants to be at the ceremony. Maid of Honour Kim (Tameka Empson) asks if she’s planning to invite her mum, and this puts the idea into Lola’s head, as Danielle Harold told us recently.

‘At that point, Lola has never spoken to anybody in The Square about her mum, or her previous family life other than how she was bought up in care,’ she explained. ‘Lola has managed to start a whole new life for herself since she arrived in Walford, and so Kim is unaware that she’s touched a nerve by bringing her up in that moment.’

Despite dealing with a terminal cancer diagnosis, Lola hadn’t thought about including her mum in the wedding – or in her life – before Kim mentions it, according to Danielle.

‘I think this is probably the first time that Lola has thought about the prospect of reconciling with her mum,’ she said. ‘It’s almost like Lola has a brainwave that her mum is out there alive somewhere when she is mentioned by Kim. I don’t think Lola would normally want to look for her but because she is dying, Lola starts to reflect and thinks that it’s her last chance to look for her. It also brings up a lot of questions for Lola and she starts to think, do I want her at the wedding? Do I want to meet her?’

Danielle also revealed that a huge part of why she makes the decision to look for her mum is her daughter, Lexi (Isabella Brown).

‘Lola thinks long and hard about her decision, and after a chat with Lexi, decides that she wants to look for her mum,’ the actress told us.

‘I think she draws on her own experience as a mum, and she also doesn’t want her daughter to be left with the same unanswered questions she has. After she’s decided that she wants to look, she goes and asks Sharon for some advice to see if it there is a way to track her down. It’s all of these little things that really push her into making that decision.’

We know that Lola is ultimately successful in finding her mum, as Patsy Kensit has been cast in the role of her mum, Emma. Former Emmerdale and Holby City star Patsy is a ‘perfect fit’ for the role, according to EastEnders boss Chris Clenshaw.

‘Softly spoken and measured, on one hand Emma is the very opposite of her long lost daughter, Lola,’ he said. ‘But on the other, there’s a striking resemblance; successful, the capacity to hold her own – if she says she’ll do something, she’ll do it – and she’s a fighter, just like Lola. Having spent a lifetime apart, Emma becomes desperate to make up for lost time, but her secret sadness and guilt are never far from the surface.’

Will mother and daughter get the chance to reconcile before it’s too late?

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