Joshua Halm
Published November 25, 2025 12:17pm
Updated November 25, 2025 12:17pm
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Is Jasmine a Ford? (Picture: BBC/Getty)
If you’ve been watching EastEnders this week, you’ve probably been left with a few questions.
Just who is Jasmine Fisher (Indeyarna Donaldson-Holness), and what are her motivations? How much danger is Cindy Beale (Michelle Collins) truly in? Just who are the Fords?
Well, unfortunately, I can’t answer the first two questions for you. The third, though? I’ve got you.
Though the supposedly-terrifying family have yet to appear on screen, the impact of what is apparently a large crime syndicate on the Beale family has been enormous.
With Cindy convinced that Jasmine is a member of the Ford gang and her appearance in Walford is part of a larger revenge plot, it’s probably time we took a proper look into who they are and what they’re about.
Who was Jackie Ford?
Cindy turned informant on Jackie Ford (Picture: BBC/Jack Barns/Kieron McCarron)
In prison, Cindy found herself bunked up with a particularly dangerous cellmate, Jackie Ford, a crime matriarch who controlled the Ford criminal family with an iron fist.
Desperately seeking release, Cindy made a deal with the police to inform on Jackie’s criminal rackets in exchange for her own charges being dropped. The only problem? That would leave Cindy in serious danger of the horses-head-in-the-bed treatment, so, with the help of the police, she faked her death while giving birth to Cindy Jr.
Despite Cindy’s apparent death, the threat against her family was still very real, so real that when Lucy (by then, Hetti Bywater) was murdered, she was convinced it was a hit by the Fords.
How did Cindy end up behind bars?
Cindy found herself with a particularly dangerous cellmate (Picture: BBC/Jack Barns/Kieron McCarron)
Cindy has always been, for lack of a better term, a bit of a cow. She arrived and immediately implanted herself in a love triangle between Simon Wicks (Nick Berry) and Ian Beale (Adam Woodyatt). She got pregnant by Simon and tried to pass the baby off as Ian’s. Though she eventually absconded when the paternity was revealed, she later returned to Ian’s side and gave birth to the twins, Peter and Lucy Beale.
In between establishing feuds left and right, namely with Ian’s mum, Kathy Beale (Gillian Taylforth), she starts a string of affairs, first with Matt the lifeguard (Toby Walton) and later with David Wicks (Michael French). When Ian discovered the truth, he turned incredibly cruel, leading Cindy to seek a permanent solution to her marriage issues in the form of a hit man.
I mean, most people go for a divorce, but I’m not here to judge.
When Phil (Steve McFadden) and Grant Mitchell (Ross Kemp) tracked down the shooter, Cindy fled to Italy, though she was found and brought back to the UK to face a custody battle, later being arrested for conspiracy to murder over her role in Ian’s shooting and sent off to the clink.
Cindy’s new life as Rose Knight
While living under a new identity, Cindy had further children (Picture: BBC/Jack Barns/Kieron McCarron)
After her release and under her new identity as Rose Sawyer, Cindy met and married George Knight (Colin Salmon) and had two daughters, Gina (Francesca Henry) and Anna (Molly Rainford). After returning to Walford in the wake of Lucy’s murder, she was sanctioned by the police for putting herself in danger and told she couldn’t return to George.
She later reconnected with Ian and the two took to living in France, running a baguette stall, alongside son Peter. When he learned he had two sisters who had set up in Walford, Peter headed back to meet them, while Cindy was visited by her police handler.
She informed Cindy that Jackie Ford had died and in the years prior, the Ford crime family had been all-but extinguished. By the time Jackie met her maker, she’d lost all of her power in the underworld and, upon her death, Cindy was free to resume her former life, leading her to head back to Albert Square.
Jasmine Fisher’s arrival
Jasmine has been infatuated with Cindy since her arrival (Picture: BBC/Jack Barns/Kieron McCarron)
When enigmatic Jasmine first arrived, it quickly became clear that she wanted the tea on Cindy.
She hustled Freddie Slater (Bobby Brazier) out of his job at the Albert and manoeuvred herself into it and despite spending plenty of time with her new boy toy, Oscar Branning (Pierre Counihan-Moullier), she devoted the rest of it to digging into Cindy’s past.
Though as devious and cunning as the target of her interest, Jasmine did raise eyebrows with her enigmatic nature. Elaine Peacock (Harriet Thorpe) questioned her over her lack of documentation and complete unwillingness to reveal anything about her life.
When Jasmine dropped the small nugget that she’d left home to avoid joining the ‘family business’, Elaine decided that said business must be criminal.
This weeks episodes saw Cindy and Lauren Branning (Jacqueline Jossa) decide to investigate and, upon finding Jasmine’s phone, organised a meeting with her mum.
Is Jasmine a Ford?
Lauren and Cindy dug into Jasmine’s past (Picture: BBC/Jack Barns/Kieron McCarron)
Anita (Yasmine Holness-Dove), was clearly wracked with anxiety and struggled to reveal more than the fact that her daughter does possess a dark and dangerous side. With Cindy having heard from Nigel Bates (Paul Bradley) that after he’d hit her with a car, Jasmine had exclaimed that somebody ‘needed to pay’, she tried to pry out of Anita who Jasmine wanted revenge against.
Panicked, Anita spilled that Jasmine’s dad’s family were dangerous, but said no more before running off, with Cindy instantly gripped with fear that said family were the Fords.
Running straight to Ian after calling her police handler, she begged him to gather up the family to go into hiding, but he dismissed her. Seeing Jasmine having a drink on the Albert’s external stairs, Cindy let loose, shouting at Jasmine that she knew who she was, she’d met her mum and that she’s ‘finished’.
Cindy, enraged, walked Jasmine backwards up the stairs threateningly, and when she shoved her to create some space, Cindy toppled down the staircase, collapsing in a heap on the ground.
Cindy paid the price for threatening Jasmine (Picture: BBC/Jack Barns/Kieron McCarron)
When Oscar found Cindy, he ran to Ian’s to tell her family of his discovery, just as Ian was informing them of her suspicions over Jasmine. As Oscar returned to Jasmine, he determined to convince his family that what happened was a simple case of self defence.
As Lauren waited alongside Gina, Ian approached, having been in contact with Cindy’s handler. Due to the Ford’s connections within the police force, she was shutting down their investigation into Cindy’s attack and it appears that the crime gang is more active than previously believed.
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With Oscar running in to Jasmine’s defence, Ian hammered home just what a threat the Ford family is and the lengths Cindy had to go to to avoid retribution. Describing them as infinitely powerful and dangerous, Oscar was floored and returned home to investigate Jasmine further.
Jasmine refused to open up (Picture: BBC/Jack Barns/Kieron McCarron)
Asking her directly if she was affiliated with the gang and if she’s a Ford, Jasmine reaffirmed that Oscar already knows who she is. She works in a gay bar and loves re-runs of Miss Marple. Broken by her lack of communication, though, and her absolute refusal to give anything away, Jasmine left.
As Lauren comforted Oscar, Jasmine made her way to Cindy’s hospital room. As it seemed she’d finish the job she started on the stairs, she disappeared, with Cindy barely catching sight of her.
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With Jasmine refusing to either confirm or deny her lineage, has she been sent by the Fords to make Cindy pay for grassing? Or is there another reason she’s so determined to infiltrate the Beale’s?
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Arrow MORE: Cindy left to die as Jasmine finally strikes in EastEnders
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