After the tragic loss of her close friend Martin Fowler (James Bye) in February, Sharon was reunited with her adoptive half-sister, Vicki Fowler (Alice Haig). Following Martin’s heart-wrenching funeral, Sharon left Walford to comfort her grieving friend, Michelle Fowler (Jenna Fowler), in Australia.

However, Sharon makes a grand comeback to the Square on Monday (September 22), completely unaware that Zoe Slater (Michelle Ryan) has also returned after a two-decade hiatus.

Before her departure, Sharon had loaned money to Vicki, who used the funds to help her partner, Ross Marshall (Alex Walkinshaw), compensate a victim of his troubled teenage son, Joel Marshall (Max Murray).

Now, Sharon finally returns to Walford with her young son Albie, and in a sneak peek at the tense episode, she is far from pleased to see Zoe, reports OK!.

As the Walford veteran steps out of a black cab, she gets the surprise of her life when she spots Zoe staring back at her from outside the Slater house.

The pair engage in a dramatic stare-off, with no words exchanged, before a shocked Sharon retreats to her home with young Albie, leaving Zoe looking on in confusion.

In the early noughties, Zoe found herself entangled in a love triangle with Sharon’s adoptive brother Dennis Rickman (Nigel Harman), sparking a rivalry as Sharon developed feelings for him.

Dennis reciprocated Sharon’s affection and they began a secret relationship, hidden from their father, Dirty Den (Leslie Grantham). The couple planned to escape Walford together on Christmas Day 2004.

However, Den had other plans and manipulated Zoe into falsely claiming she was pregnant with Dennis’s child, effectively derailing Sharon’s romance.

This deceit led to the end of Dennis and Sharon’s relationship, with Dennis deciding to stay with Zoe, oblivious to her fabricated pregnancy.

In a desperate attempt to fall pregnant, Zoe was persuaded by Den to sleep with him, hoping to conceive a child and keep Dennis in her life.

Chrissie and Zoe joined forces with a disgruntled Sam Mitchell (Kim Medcalf) to exact revenge on the villainous Den and expose his true nature to Sharon.

Den didn’t take kindly to their scheme and lashed out at Chrissie in The Vic, only to be stopped in his tracks when Zoe hit him with a doorstop.

Zoe believed she had ended Den’s life to protect Chrissie, but after Zoe departed, Den regained consciousness, and it was Chrissie who dealt the deadly blow.

Sam witnessed the true events unfold, but they let Zoe believe she was a killer. Den’s body was subsequently buried in a shallow grave beneath the pub’s barrel store and encased in concrete.

In due course, Sam revealed the truth to Zoe, leading to a heated confrontation where Zoe struck Chrissie. Zoe also admitted that she terminated Den’s baby and did not have a miscarriage.

In 2005, Zoe reconciled with Dennis and Sharon before bidding farewell to Walford for a fresh start in Ibiza. Chrissie was later convicted of Den’s murder and sentenced to 20 years behind bars.

In recent episodes of EastEnders, Zoe disclosed that she gave birth to twins in 2006, and is convinced her daughter died shortly after being born, while her son survived before she abandoned him. The identity of the twins’ father remains unknown.