Serial womaniser Max Branning may well rank his fifth wedding day among his most memorable – even though it isn’t happening until New Year’s Day 2027.
For a much-hyped ‘flash forward’ episode of the BBC 1 soap, which aired on January 1, showed Max waking up beside his mystery pregnant bride, only to be arrested in connection with a murder before the episode was over.
But there’s no need to fast forward by a year to find drama in the life of Max, played by Jake Wood. While other EastEnders enjoyed family get togethers on Christmas Day, he slept with Cindy Beale (Michelle Collins) having fallen out with the entire Branning clan.
Jake, who left the soap last year after quitting in 2021 and working as a professional artist, claims that Max managed four marriages, 20 affairs, four children, and was buried alive during his final 15 years there.
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In contrast, Jake, 53, and Alison Wood, the mother of their 10-year-old daughter Amber, a model, and 10-year-old son Buster, a keen footballer, wed in 2001 and renewed their engagement in 2018. He disagrees, saying that “Family is f***ing hell” and that Max has no control over mixed families. Is it ever straightforward, really?
There is always drama, in my opinion, in any large-scale family I know. Every family I can recall has a story, a trauma, or a secret. It’s very rarely apparent in the open. He does understand that people no longer accept bad behavior simply because they are members of their families and that times have changed.
Henning Wehn, a comedian and author, quotes Wood Wehn in his podcast, “Fifty, sixty years ago,” saying that no matter what other people’s behavior was, whether it was abusive or traumatizing, you were expected to toe the line and be a part of the family. You were simply expected to “suck it up” and proceed accordingly. There is no justification for being abusive, he continues.
It’s not surprising that Jake is drawn to The Brannings because he finds crime families endlessly fascinating despite having a strong moral code for his own family, who reside in an old school house in Hampshire. He responds, “It’s fascinating, isn’t it? ” When a whole family is combined with generations of criminals returning. Isn’t it similar to the family business? You sort of get born into those families, and then you carry on, you know, the family tradition! I believe that Sicilians are similar to that generation’s fathers.
Generally, however, Jake – who recently appeared on The Celebrity Apprentice – believes: ”You’re a family by the values that you hold and the way that you live your life. “ He also feels families have changed a lot in the last 100 years, as the world has opened up and they are less likely to stay in the same geographical area. And he thinks the traditional nuclear family, with 2.2 children, is now a thing of the past. He says “It’s not that traditional anymore. You get blended families, single parent families, same sex parents.
“Everything is much more individual, and it seems like people now have a lot more choice.” It’s a really good thing, in my opinion. Before, there were so many restrictions. If your parents divorced, your children would be bullied for it, as I once was a student.
And in terms of family life, Jake thinks that tradition is much more important than core values. The truth is that if a family has love, that is everything, right? he claims. “Love, reciprocity, support,” If all of those are present, “happy days,” I suppose. He believes that having to provide for and listen to his children whenever they need him is crucial as a father, especially as rising costs make it more difficult for them to achieve independence.
“That’s the essence of the deal,” not the other way around. he claims. If you adopt young people into the world. It’s not as though you raise them, then you let them run into the jungle and never see them again. And he thinks that helping them financially when they need him is a privilege, saying, “You’re always a parent to them, and you’ve got the means to do that, and you want to do that, isn’t it beautiful”? Jake says, “I will help you until you can support yourself until that time.” His mantra for his children is this.
Despite being a protective father, he doesn’t give a damn about the choices his kids make in relationships and believes it’s okay to make mistakes in life. He continues, “You hope you’ve made them wise choices.” Really, that’s all you can do. They teach you just as much as you do, I mean. You are learning together, too. It’s two-way communication. They just have to fit in, which is not how you as a parent should feel.
You have to make adjustments because they have to make mistakes, whatever they do and the choices they make. Great things can happen. And because of that, they ought to be free to make mistakes. They will only learn that way, not by chance.
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Source: Mirror
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