EastEnders fans have taken to social media to express their thoughts on Suki Panesar’s (Balvinder Sopal) latest storyline.
Beloved character Suki is currently married to Eve Unwin (Heather Peace). In recent scenes, she discovered her granddaughter Avani Nandra-Hart (Aaliyah James) is pregnant with Joel Marshall’s (Max Murray) baby.
Avani first told friend Barney Mitchell (Lewis Bridgeman) about the pregnancy, and tried to make plans to have an abortion.
When he refused, she began to research clinics – but got more than she bargained for when Suki looked over her shoulder and saw what she was looking at.
Avani remained adamant that she was doing the right thing, despite Suki dropping a huge bombshell. She was prepared to raise the child as her own.
There was one major hitch, however. She hadn’t told Eve, and Avani knew that she wouldn’t be as on board with the plan as Suki made out.
In the episode that aired yesterday, a nervous Avani sat among other women who were making a brave decision at the abortion clinic. Despite Suki’s pleading, she was confident that having a child would only hold her back.
She was also sure it would cause an surge of bullying, which is the last thing she needed after a rough few months.
Suki’s attempts to guilt-trip Avani failed. She knew she’d have to go the extra mile to secure the child as her own – so she offered financial support throughout her pregnancy.
To her surprise, Avani accepted.
This storyline is really only just beginning, but it’s already caused quite a lot of backlash.
Taking to social media platform X, many fans of the BBC One soap struggled to watch Suki push Avani into agreeing with her idea, with many arguing it’s an incredibly ‘manipulative’ move from her.
‘Im actually so uncomfortable watching todays eastenders. Sukis constant and unweilding manipulation of Avani is disgusting and quite upsetting. I don’t understand how anyone can defend the way she is behaving. Every woman should have autonomy over her own body’, this person wrote online.
Echoing the view, another user of X said: ‘Suki following her 16 year old granddaughter to an abortion clinic and proceeding to try manipulation, guilt tripping and then straight up harassment to talk her out of an abortion might be one of the most grossly offensive storylines #Eastenders has done in a very long time.’
This person noted: ‘NO. I HATE this story so much. Suki has overcome and changed so much in the last couple of years and this is an ABOMINATION of all of that arguably one of the worst things she’s done.’
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In the episode of the soap that airs this evening, but is also available now on BBC iPlayer, Suki proposes the idea of having kids to Eve, but she isn’t interested.
Eventually though, after a chat with friend Stacey Slater (Lacey Turner), Eve tells Suki that she’s open to considering it.
Avani then arrives and drops the bombshell about them raising her baby – but how will Eve react?
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