Kat Moon

Kathleen "Kat" Mitchell (also Slater and Moon) is a fictional character from the BBC soap opera EastEnders, played by Jessie Wallace.

Kat is the second eldest Slater family sister and first appeared on 18 September 2000.

Kat's usual dress is very short skirts and leopard-print tops, with much make-up and heavy fake tan.

Her initial stint saw her involved in many storylines, most significantly in a plot twist that sees her supposedly sister Zoe Slater (Michelle Ryan), revealed to be her daughter after she was raped by her uncle Harry Slater (Michael Elphick) as a child.

Kat and Zoe's relationship is tested several times, and a feud forms when they compete against each other for the affection of Anthony Trueman (Nicholas Bailey).

Another key aspect to the character's storylines is her marriage to Alfie Moon (Shane Richie), prior to which she became briefly engaged to Andy Hunter (Michael Higgs); after Kat jilted Andy On their wedding day, he blackmailed her into sleeping with him in his revenge bid against Alfie and Kat.

Kat arrives in Walford on 18 September 2000, followed by her family: father Charlie (Derek Martin), sisters Lynne (Elaine Lordan), Little Mo (Kacey Ainsworth) and Zoe (Michelle Ryan), grandmother Big Mo (Laila Morse) and later, cousin Stacey (Lacey Turner).

A fourth sister, Belinda (Leanne Lakey) is also introduced later the following year.

Kat embarks on a brief fling with Steve Owen (Martin Kemp), much to the annoyance of his girlfriend Mel Healy (Tamzin Outhwaite).

She finds work in The Queen Victoria public house as a barmaid, where she is an instant hit with the customers.

Fiercely defensive of her sisters, Kat embarks on a feud with Little Mo's abusive husband Trevor Morgan (Alex Ferns) – though has a fling with Lynne's boyfriend Garry Hobbs (Ricky Groves).

Much to Zoe's frustration, Kat is often over-protective of her.

When Zoe announces her decision to move to Spain for a new life with their uncle Harry (Michael Elphick), Kat refuses to allow her to go.

It is then revealed that Kat is in fact, Zoe's mother, having been sexually abused by Harry aged thirteen.

Charlie and his late wife Viv (Debi Gibson) had made the decision to raise Zoe as their own, meaning Kat had to become her "sister".

Upon hearing of Harry's interference with his daughter, Charlie punches him in The Queen Vic and banishes him from Walford.

The entire family were aware of Zoe's true parentage, with the exception of Belinda and Little Mo.

Unable to accept these revelations, Zoe flees Walford, and Kat attempts suicide by cutting her wrists.

She recovers, is romanced by local doctor Anthony Trueman (Nicholas Bailey), and later finds Zoe and brings her home.

Their relationship improves, but after Kat breaks up with Anthony, he and Zoe begin an affair.

Zoe disowns Kat for disapproving of their relationship, and later runs away when Anthony confesses that he is still in love with Kat.

Anthony and Kat's relationship resumes, but she fails to impress his colleagues and breaks up with him as he is about to propose.

Kat discovers she is pregnant by him and decides to have an abortion.

Her boss Alfie Moon (Shane Richie) persuades her not to, but she suffers a miscarriage shortly after telling Anthony of the pregnancy.

She was also played by Kate Peck in a flashback in 2001 and Sumar-Elise Sandford in a flashback in 2018.

Kat was absent between November 2004 and May 2005 following Wallace's maternity leave, and Kat later left the soap on 25 December 2005.

Wallace reprised the role in 2010 and Kat returned on 17 September, before taking leave from the soap again between January and June 2012.

Kat departed the soap again in May 2015, returning briefly between December 2015 and January 2016.

In 2015, Kat's most prominent storyline – her rape, is revisited when it is revealed that Kat had given birth to twins and she has a secret son, Zoe's twin brother and this facilitates the character's second exit from the soap.

In Kat & Alfie: Redwater, Kat discovers her son is a murderous Catholic priest, Dermott Dolan (Oisín Stack).

Wallace reprised her role as Kat in the six-part spin-off series Kat & Alfie: Redwater in 2017.

Following the confirmation that Redwater would not return for a second series, it was announced that Kat would return to EastEnders; she returned on 22 March 2018.

Since her reintroduction to the show in 2018, Kat's storylines have focused on the breakdown of her and Alfie's marriage and her separation from Tommy and their twin sons Bert and Ernie, a relationship with Kush Kazemi (Davood Ghadami), feuds with both her cousin Stacey Slater (Lacey Turner) and enemy Phil Mitchell (Steve McFadden), embarking on a relationship with Phil after sleeping with him, surviving an accidental hit-and-run, taking temporary custody of Tommy's half-sister Scarlett Butcher (Tabitha Byron), a feud with Scarlett's mother Janine Butcher (Charlie Brooks), clashing with Phil's sister Sam Mitchell (Kim Medcalf) and his ex-wife Sharon Watts (Letitia Dean) over the Mitchell empire, and supporting Stacey's daughter Lily Slater (Lillia Turner) through her underage pregnancy.

In September 2023, Kat marries Phil.

Wallace has won multiple awards for her portrayal as Kat, who has become one of the show's best loved characters.

On 26 January 2020, Wallace was suspended from the soap for two months due to her off-screen behaviour; she ultimately returned to work when production of the series resumed during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Kat departed on 23 March 2020 and returned on 7 September 2020.

In the events of Kat's second stint on the soap, in what was called "the biggest soap story in probably the history of soaps", Kat and Ronnie Branning (Samantha Womack) both give birth on the same day, but Ronnie's son, James Branning, dies and while Kat is in hospital and her son, Tommy Moon, is unattended, Ronnie swaps James and Tommy.

The storyline received over 6,000 complaints, making it the second most complained about EastEnders storyline.

Kat's storylines also include suffering a miscarriage, an affair with Derek Branning (Jamie Foreman) which briefly ends her marriage with Alfie, becoming penniless and permanently scarred in a fire and becoming a millionaire.