EastEnders star confirms Stacey Slater and Max Branning have “unfinished business” as her exit approaches
Jake Wood has teased what may lie ahead for Max and Stacey.
- Lewis Knight
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It’s been nearly two decades since they began their iconic affair, but now former lovers Max Branning (Jake Wood) and Stacey Slater (Lacey Turner) look set to reunite on EastEnders.
Max made his unexpected comeback to the BBC One soap this week as he was revealed to have struck up a romance with Stacey’s cousin Zoe Slater (Michelle Ryan) in his time away from Walford since he left in 2021.
Flashbacks detailed their romance and how he helped her to try and track down a secret son that she had abandoned after giving birth to twins, a daughter who appeared to have died.
However, Max and Zoe parted ways when he refused to be an accessory to potentially having killed a man who had promised to lead her to her son, only to attack her.
Now, speaking at a press event to launch his return to the soap on Wednesday (3rd September 2025), actor Jake Wood responded to a question about Max and Stacey having “unfinished business”.
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Wood answered: “Undoubtedly, yeah, I think so, yes.”
He added when reminded that Stacey lost her second husband, Martin Fowler (James Bye), earlier this year: ‘Yes, she’s on her own, as Max is not quite on his own, but yeah…there’ll always be a connection with Max and Stacey. So, regardless of where they are and who they’re with, I think there’ll always be an emotional connection between them. They understand each other.”
As Wood’s co-star Scott Maslen, who plays Max’s brother Jack Branning, noted that the Max and Stacey affair reveal on Christmas Day 2007 stands as one of the soap’s most iconic moments, Wood continued: “They’ll always be connected, regardless of what they’re doing, whether the timing is always ever right for them to reconnect on that level, and whether they both want to.
“We all know Lacey Turner’s going on an extended break. Will Max and Stacy’s paths cross before she goes? You have to just keep watching. Personally, I really hope so.”
Of course, one thing that Max does not know about is Stacey’s affair with his brother Jack – and it wouldn’t be the first time that a woman had come between those Branning brothers.
“There are lots of hidden little things that [Max] doesn’t know about, and they were done to protect the people in it,” noted Maslen.
When asked if Stacey could cause issues between the pair, Maslen answered: “Of course.”
Fans will have to wait and see if Max and Stacey cross paths before actress Lacey Turner takes her extended break.
This week, the soap appeared to tease Stacey’s exit as she remarked to her mum, Jean Slater (Gillian Wright), that she only returned to Walford due to the crisis with Zoe and actually wanted to escape the bad memories of Albert Square.
Perhaps Max will be just one bad reminder too many…