Lesley Jane Beale (also Clarke and Collins) is a fictional character from the BBC soap opera EastEnders, played by Laurie Brett. She made her first appearance on 22 June 2004. Brett took maternity leave in 2011 and departed on 19 May. She returned on 8 November and departed on 27 January 2012. Jane made a return to the show on 6 January 2014 until 20 May and permanently from 25 November 2014. Her major storylines have included her relationship and later marriages to Ian Beale (Adam Woodyatt); the first ended due to his affair with Glenda Mitchell (Glynis Barber), an affair with Grant Mitchell (Ross Kemp), her desire to have a child of her own following a hysterectomy, a relationship with Masood Ahmed (Nitin Ganatra), her popular friendship with Tanya Branning (Jo Joyner), and covering up her adoptive son Bobby's (Eliot Carrington) role in the murder of her stepdaughter Lucy Beale (Hetti Bywater).