Madeline Duggan starred as EastEnders’ mischievous teenager Lauren Branning for four years, but the 31-year-old actress has come a long way since her days in Albert Square
She starred in EastEnders’ iconic Christmas episode(Image: BBC/Kieron McCarron/Jack Barnes)
Madeline Duggan looks worlds away from the chaos-creating character who brought to life one of EastEnders‘ biggest moments.
The actress, who originally played Lauren Branning in the BBC soap, looked completely different from her Walford days as she glammed up for a selfie. Madeline, 31, starred as Max Branning’s eldest daughter from 2006 until 2010, with Jacqueline Jossa then taking on the role.
Lauren famously exposed her dad, Max’s, affair with her daughter-in-law, Stacey’s, in the epic 2007 Christmas special, with her shocked family watching a videotape that revealed the sordid secret. Madeline looks nearly unrecognisable from her time on the soap, after leaving more than 15 years ago.
She is all grown up and she is quick to keep fans up to date with what’s going on in her life. Sitting in a black robe, she showed off her stylish cut after showing off some jet-setting holidays in 2025.
In her latest selfie, she wrote: “Dareee l say… I’m really enjoying the Kylie skin tint & Rhodes blush, but this now means I wanna try the Khy B10k foundation.” She quickly followed that up with another Instagram Story, a ‘well-deserved’ Pina Colada.
After leaving EastEnders, Madeline landed roles in the TV show Rules of Love, before securing a role as the character Amy Chester in the acclaimed BBC crime drama Silent Witness.
A year later, the versatile actress starred in the British film Everyone’s Going to Die, cast as the character Laura in a storyline based on a couple embracing their past and moving on with their lives.
In 2017, she played a waitress in the Channel 4 drama Dates and also had a role in Sky Atlantic’s French detective series The Tunnel: Sabotage and Home Alone.
She also appeared in a number of other films during her eclectic career, including Between Us, Spoilt Eggs, and Maybe I’m Fine in 2019. Madeline has also appeared in two music videos, for the bands Feeder and Shaduno, with acting still high on her priority list. But it’s her role in the iconic Max/Stacey affair-reveal that she is best known for.
Arguably one of the most iconic moments in TV soap history, EastEnders viewers were glued to the screen as Max and Stacey’s sordid affair was finally revealed in front of Max’s wife Tanya and Stacey’s husband, Bradley.
After filming the pair on her video camera on Stacey’s wedding day, angry Lauren burned the footage onto a DVD before playing it to the entire family on Christmas Day.
Madeline revealed in April 2020 that she was working part-time in a doctor’s surgery because “being an out-of-work actress doesn’t pay”.
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