Rumours are continuing to circulate around Albert Square over who attacked Cindy Beale (Michelle Collins) in EastEnders.

The iconic face was attacked with a shovel on Christmas Day, hours after the Knight and Beale families found out she had been having an affair with Junior (Micah Balfour).

Towards the end of the instalment, a number of characters were put in the spotlight, all with reasons and motives to want revenge on Cindy.

Unsurprisingly, one character on this list is Cindy’s partner Ian Beale (Adam Woodyatt).

He was utterly devastated to learn of Cindy’s betrayal and threw her out of the house, announcing he wanted nothing to do with her.

The possibility of Ian attacking Cindy is certainly high but for some EastEnders fans, they believe he is innocent, and actually acting suspicious for another reason.

Taking to social media platform X, one audience member put forward the idea Ian has started seeing old flame Jane Beale (Laurie Brett) again.

And many people agree.

‘I definitely sense jane or at least someone in the beale family that’s not on screen right now being involved in this cindy storyline down the line’, a user responded.

Another said: ‘He was definitely seeing Jane’.

Laurie reprised her role as Jane last year, as part of Bobby Beale’s (Clay Milner Russell) exit storyline.

Ian visited Jane in secret at the time, which left Cindy wondering if he was having an affair (the irony).

Perhaps Ian found comfort in speaking with Jane again after discovering Cindy’s affair?

Many characters will continue to find themselves in the frame over the next few weeks and fans will ultimately get the answer as to who attacked Cindy during EastEnders’ 40th anniversary week in February.

Discussing the storyline, EastEnders boss Chris Clenshaw said: ‘Our 40th anniversary storylines have been in the works for some time, but even at the very start of planning, we knew that we wanted to reveal the identity of Cindy’s attacker as part of this.

‘Many characters currently find themselves in the line of question, but over the coming weeks, the audience can look out for clues themselves to who may be the culprit.

‘Cindy’s attacker reveal is just one of many stories we have planned for the anniversary as it is set to be a week of explosive drama for the audience to remember.’