Joyner: I don't know Max's secret

EastEnders' star Jo Joyner has confessed that even she doesn't know what Max Branning's dark secret is.

Tanya (Jo) and ex-husband Max have rekindled their romance after battling hard times and are set to tie-the-knot again. But all will not go well as Max, played by Jake Wood, got into trouble while he was away in Manchester, and his past comes back to haunt him in Albert Square.

Jo told ITV's Daybreak: "We don't know what mischief. But we do know that while he was in Manchester, he got up to something.

"Do you know what, I honestly, genuinely don't even know [what it is] yet! I don't know if they know yet! But there will be something. And yes, it will come out in a couple of months."

The mother-of-two is planning to take time off from the soap in 2013, and does not expect Tanya to have it easy in the run up to her break from Albert Square.

She said: "I'm taking a bit of time off, not until next year though. And between now and next year, I've just been told actually - literally just been told - how busy we're going to be.

"There's going to be a lot going on for the whole of the Square, but the Brannings particularly. I can't say much more than that, isn't it annoying? There's a few things that I want to blurt out, but I can't!"