EastEnders’ Ben vows to fight for custody of Lexi as huge custody battle looms

Ben Mitchell vowed to fight Jay Brown for custody of his young daughter Lexi Pearce on Tuesday’s episode of EastEnders.

It seemed that Ben’s troubling week took another unexpected turn after learning that his rapist, Lewis Butler (Aidan O’Callaghan) had been arrested and charged with assaulting someone else.

In recent episodes, Ben (Max Bowden) struggles with his mental health as he decides to ignore his feelings by competing in a boxing match.

Lola, the mother of Ben’s child Lexi, has a terminal brain tumor and was recently given only months to live, and her final scenes are expected to air later this year.

She is distraught and later tells Jay that as time is running out she needs to get some essentials in order and wants him to adopt Lexi.

After realizing that Ben might not be able to do the job while she was gone, Lola and Jay arrived to tell Ben their plan.

An enraged Ben yelled, “If you try to take her away I’m warning you, if you try you’re in for a big fight”

While Callum asked if Jay really had to adopt Lexi to become one of her parents, Ben raged at the bombshell, with a huge custody battle looming.

It comes after Zack shared his HIV diagnosis with the entire Square on Monday’s episode of EastEnders after being pushed to pull out of a fight with Ben Mitchell.

He felt a lot more positive after talking to Sharon and Martin about his recent diagnosis.

However, Ben was dealing with his own trauma after learning that his rapist Lewis had been arrested again, and instead of opening up, he threw all his aggression into the boxing match.

Looking for a fight with Zack after words in the pub, Ben said, “You’re nothing, you never lived.” Well done, you never became a father because you would be useless’

Finally, Zack snapped and yelled, “I’m not going to fight you because I have HIV.” I am HIV positive’

While times have certainly changed around those who are HIV positive, the next few scenes will prove that some old stances remain as Zack gets mixed reactions from gamblers when he shares his health struggles.

Last month, the show’s viewers praised the character for telling Whitney Dean (Shona McGarty) that he was HIV positive.

Zack struggled to let his ex know about his status because he was afraid of how she would react.

The couple were devastated by the death of their little girl weeks earlier, after doctors revealed she had Edwards syndrome.

They are no longer together, but Zack finally decided to tell Whitney about his diagnosis.

While Whitney struggled to accept Zack’s news immediately, viewers took to Twitter to praise his handling of the situation, with many insisting that Whitney could have handled things differently.

One person wrote, “I hope Whitney accepts Zack’s HIV diagnosis and sees him through it, these days your levels become undetectable during treatment and cannot be transferred.”

Another viewer tweeted, “Proud of Zack for telling Whitney about HIV! I understand she was hurt, he never told her, but I didn’t like the way Whitney reacted.’

Someone else posted, “I’m glad Zack Whitney finally told the truth. I wish she didn’t take it so badly. I think he didn’t tell her before because he’s ashamed of how he got it, and he acted like his own enemy! He will feel down now. The HIV didn’t matter to the baby!’

“Zack is finally honest with Whitney about HIV,” another viewer wrote along with a laughing emoji.

One person was not impressed with Whitney’s response, writing, “Whitney did not consider Zack’s feelings when he had HIV.”

Whitney was angry that Zack had not told her about his HIV status, and asked him if it had affected the health of their deceased baby.

When he insisted this was not the case and he had confirmation from the doctors, she was angry that he had spoken to them behind her back without telling her.

Earlier in the episode, Zack met with a doctor who told him that once his medication took his viral load to an undetectable level, he would not be able to pass on HIV.

He was advised to use protection during sex and was told that potential partners could consider using PrEP (pre-exposure prophylaxis), drugs that can reduce the risk of contracting HIV through sex or the use of injectable drugs if taken such as prescribed.

Zack told Whitney about his diagnosis, explaining that it happened after using needles to inject steroids in the past.

Unable to handle the news at the time, Whitney was shocked and asked him to leave her house.

Zack started his HIV medication in January when he was consumed with guilt for keeping Whitney in the dark about his condition.

He is overcome with shame about his HIV diagnosis and initially kept it to himself, telling his sister Sharon Watts (Letitia Dean) only some of his problems.

Call THT Direct on 0808 802 1221 for HIV support or email info@tht.org.uk

EastEnders airs Monday to Thursday at 7.30pm on BBC One and iPlayer.