How are Sharon and Vicki related in EastEnders? The answer goes back decades
Sharon Watts and Vicki Fowler call each other sisters, yet there isn't a drop of shared blood between them. The explanation is one of EastEnders' oldest and most scandalous storylines — and it starts all the way back in 1985.
The short answer
Vicki is Sharon's adoptive half-sister. Sharon was adopted as a baby by Den and Angie Watts; Vicki is Den's biological daughter, the product of his affair with Michelle Fowler. They share a father figure — "Dirty Den" — but no biology at all.
The scandal that started it
In 1985, Den Watts had an affair with 16-year-old Michelle Fowler — Sharon's best friend. When Michelle fell pregnant and refused to name the father, the canal-side scene revealing it was Den became one of the young soap's defining twists. Vicki arrived on screen on 27 May 1986, making her simultaneously Sharon's little sister and her best mate's daughter.
That double bond has shaped their relationship ever since. It's messy, it's entirely Den's fault, and it's pure EastEnders.
The family tree in brief
- Den Watts — adoptive father to Sharon; biological father to Vicki and to Dennis Rickman.
- Michelle Fowler — Vicki's mum, and Sharon's childhood best friend.
- Gavin Sullivan — revealed in 2015 as Sharon's biological father, which also gave her a blood half-brother: Zack Hudson.
- Dennis Rickman — Den's biological son, whom Sharon went on to marry. No blood link there either.
Why it matters right now
Because the tangle just got another knot. Vicki is currently embroiled in an affair with Zack — Sharon's biological half-brother — meaning both of Sharon's siblings, one from each side of her family, have fallen for each other while she's been away in Florida. The two of them share no relation at all, but explaining that at the next family do won't be simple.
For the record: Den Watts has been dead since 2005, and he's still complicating Walford family trees.
Some legacies never die.