Ben Mitchell

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Ben Mitchell is a fictional character and major protagonist of the BBC British soap opera EastEnders.

The character is portrayed currently by Max Bowden, having been formerly played by Charlie Jones in his first stint; Joshua Pascoe in his second stint; and Harry Reid in his third stint.

Biography[]

Ben Mitchell was born at an Albert Square at Walford, a fictional borough in East London, on 21 March 1996; conceived by the square's criminal hardman Phil Mitchell and his second wife Kathy Beale. Over the years their marriage broke down due to Phil's alcoholism and in the end Kathy left the square with Ben to start anew in South Africa.

Throughout the years, Kathy got married to her estranged husband Gavin Sullivan and allegedly the pair were killed in a car crash in 2006; it was then Ben was sent to Walford to live with his half-brother, Ian Beale. Soon after his son's arrival at the Square, Phil began a legal battle with Ian over which of them should have custody over Ben; the courts ultimately ruled in favour of Phil, and Ben moved in with his father, but remained on good terms with Ian.

In 2007, Ben disliked Phil's girlfriend Stella Crawford. It was then Stella began abusing Ben for months until he eventually spilled the truth to his father on their wedding day; Stella later committed suicide and was disgraced by everyone in Walford for the ordeal she put Ben through. Not long afterwards, Phil and Ben's relationship was strained to the point where he nearly abused him until Phil's uncle Archie Mitchell talked him out of it - as Phil had been abused in the past by his late father and Archie's brother Eric, which was caused by the fact that both Eric and Archie had been mistreated by their late father Phillip in the past as well. In 2010, Ben went to prison for attacking his enemy Jordan Johnson on a GBH charge and was confronted by the latter's father Lucas Johnson about it.

By the time he has been released in 2010, Ben has somewhat evolved into a much more antagonistic individual. He grows jealous of his best friend Jay Brown being appointed as Phil's surrogate son and later falls out with Phil's fiance Shirley Carter. Soon enough Ben further resents his father after coming out as gay, to which Phil is unhappy with after local general practitioner Yusef Khan informs him about Ben's odd behaviour. Thereupon Ben sets out to get revenge and begins stalking Phil over the knowledge of his past crimes, such as the death of his old nemesis Steve Owen in 2002. Eventually, Ben sets up Phil for Stella's death and reveals the truth to him.

However, Phil is released in 2012 after Ian tells the police that Ben had lied. Ben wrongfully asserts that Shirley's best-friend, Heather Trott, grassed him up to the police and confronts her about it. The confronation ends in tragedy when Ben smacks Heather on the head with a picture frame, accidently killing her as a result. Phil thereupon arrives to find that Ben has accidently killed Heather and ends up covering up the crime. Months later, Ben reveals the truth to Shirley and she disowns him and Phil for what they did. Ben turns himself into the police for Heather's murder and goes to prison, but not after it later transpired that he had sex with fellow relative Lola Pearce and got her pregnant with their baby - Lexi.

In 2014, Ben is released and gets acquainted with Phil's new wife Sharon Watts. A year later he is implicated for the murder of Ian's daughter Lucy Beale, who in reality was murdered by her younger brother Bobby Beale; that same night, it is revealed that Kathy is alive. Eventually Ben learns of his mother's return and they reconcile, whilst Phil frames his business rival Max Branning for Lucy's murder in order to prevent Ben from facing police investigation.

In 2016, Ben reunites with his sister Louise Mitchell. They are devastated when their grandmother Peggy dies from suicide due to her cancer, but a much more devastating incident occurs later on when Ben and his boyfriend Paul Coker are subjugated to a homophobic attack; Ben survives but Paul dies, leaving Ben devastated and vengeful against the killers. Soon enough Ben and Jay are kidnapped by the killers, but they are rescued by Phil's brother Grant and his long-lost son Mark Fowler Jr. not long afterwards; Ben later testifies against Paul's killers and is relieved when they are found guilty and subsuqently convicted for the crime.

In 2017, Ben learns that his mother was raped by her former boss James Willmott-Brown whilst dating his son Luke Browning at the same time. When Ben threatens to expose their illicit activities, Luke attacks him and hospilatizes him. Phil later arranges for Luke to be kidnapped by his old partner-in-crime Aidan Maguire, who ends up killing Luke against his reservations. Following this, Ben flees Walford with the money that Phil and Aidan had for an armed robbery.

In 2019, Ben returns with his family and it turns out that he is involved with Phil's latest criminal rival Danny Hardcastle along with fellow competitior Midge. At one point Ben arranges for Midge to kidnap Louise in order to start a war between Phil and Danny in the hopes of taking over the Mitchell empire. But in the end Ben's plan is foiled and exposed, prompting Phil to cast him aside afterwards. This continued even after Phil is hospilatized by Archie's killer Stacey Slater. Eventually, though, Ben and Phil reconcile after Ben later gets shot by Louise's ex-boyfriend and Steve's convicted son Hunter during a raid in The Queen Vic; Hunter is eventually killed by a police marksman, whilst his mother and Steve's widow Mel Owen would later be killed months later in a road accident.

Towards the end of 2019, Ben helps Phil confront Louise's boyfriend Keanu Taylor for having an affair with Sharon behind their back; they plan to eliminate Keanu against the objections of Louise's mother Lisa Fowler. That same year, Ben gets romantically involved with policeman Callum Highway and they eventually get married.

In 2022, Ben gets raped by his supposed "friend" Lewis Butler. He later confronts Lewis with the help from Phil and his sister Sam, but instead decides to report Lewis to the police at Kathy's urging. In 2023, Ben is surprised to learn that Lewis has been arrested and charged with another rape. He later comforts Lexi after finding out that Lola is suffering from a terminal brain tumor and only has months to live.

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Trivia[]

Ben Mitchell is named after the character Mitch in The Getaway series.