jane beale, played by laurie brett, makes her first appearance on 22 june 2004 and soon starts a romance with ian beale (adam woodyatt). jane has an affair with grant mitchell (ross kemp), though her and ian overcome this and marry in 2007. soon after steven beale (aaron sidwell) returns to walford soon after, and mistakenly shoots jane in the stomach, leaving her unable to have children. brett took maternity leave in 2011 and jane departed on 19 may. jane returned to screens on 8 november before departing the series on 27 january 2012. the character returned permanently in 2014.