Veronica "Ronnie" Branning (also Mitchell) is a fictional character from the BBC soap opera, EastEnders, played by Samantha Womack. She and her younger sister Roxy Mitchell (played by Rita Simons) were introduced by executive producer Diederick Santer in July 2007. Ronnie is described as the "ice" to Roxy's "fire". As an extension to the already established Mitchell family, Ronnie quickly became a prominent character, taking over the nightclub. She later formed an on-off relationship with her business partner, Jack Branning (Scott Maslen). The character is introduced during the episode first broadcast on 24 July 2007. Her first major storyline saw Ronnie clash with her villainous father, Archie (Larry Lamb), after it transpired that he forced his eldest daughter — at the age of 14 — to give up her newborn baby just moments after she gave birth to it. This escalates in The Secret Mitchell and Who Killed Archie? scenarios, wherein the former explores Ronnie's friendship with her employee Danielle Jones (Lauren Crace) — who later turns out to be her long-lost daughter — and the latter reveals that Archie had raped Ronnie when she was 13. Soon afterwards, Ronnie becomes the subject of a controversial storyline where she swaps her dead baby with that of Tommy Moon — the son of her close friend Kat Moon (Jessie Wallace). This contributes to the development of Womack leaving the role in 2011, with the character departing in the episode shown on 7 July 2011. In May 2013, show bosses announced that Womack would return to EastEnders as Ronnie for six months. Womack returned on screen for two three-month-long stints, from 9 September 2013 to 1 January 2014 and from 3 March to 23 June 2014. She then returned full-time to screens on 25 September 2014. Womack's second stint on the show saw Ronnie involved in storylines such as killing Carl White (Daniel Coonan) in self-defence, marrying Charlie Cotton (Declan Bennett) and having a child with him, having an affair with Vincent Hubbard (Richard Blackwood), attempting to poison Dean Wicks (Matt Di Angelo), being stalked by Andy Flynn (Jack Derges), and remarrying Jack before drowning along with Roxy in a swimming pool. In August 2016, it was reported that Ronnie and Roxy would depart together in a "dramatic exit". The sisters were killed off on 1 January 2017 after Ronnie's second wedding to Jack, although Ronnie appears on-screen for a final time when Jack visits her corpse on 19 January 2017.