Ava Hartman

Ava Hartman is a fictional character from the BBC soap opera EastEnders, played by Clare Perkins. Perkins' casting was announced in September 2012 and she made her first appearance on 20 November 2012. Ava had previously been mentioned in 2012 as the long-lost daughter of established character Cora Cross (Ann Mitchell) and the half-sister of Tanya Branning (Jo Joyner), who never knew she had another sibling. Cora initially claims that Ava died shortly after birth, but she actually was forced to give her up for adoption. When Tanya discovers the truth, she tracks Ava down and Ava ends up meeting Cora. Ava and her son Dexter Hartman (Khali Best) end up moving to Walford when Ava tries to help Liam Butcher (James Forde) with a gang that Dexter used to be part of. Perkins praised the soap for raising awareness of gangs as she grew up in London and it was an issue that she was passionate about. Ava later has a brief romance with Billy Mitchell (Perry Fenwick), though Perkins did not believe that the pair were suited for each other. EastEnders later introduced Ava's former husband and Dexter's father, Sam James (Cornell John), and he and Ava rekindle their relationship. However, it is later revealed that Sam only tracked them down to get Dexter to donate his kidney to him, which leads to the second of their relationship. In September 2013, it was announced that both John and Perkins would be leaving EastEnders, and Ava made her last appearance on 17 December of that year. Ava's debut episode was watched by 7.71 million viewers when it aired, making it the most watched soap opera of the day.