Julie Haye (also Bates) is a fictional character in the BBC soap opera EastEnders played by Karen Henthorn between 15 September 1997 and 30 April 1998.

Meanwhile, Clare has begun dating a fellow pupil at her school named Josh Saunders (Jon Lee), who is Julie's son.

In December 2024, Nigel returns to Walford and tells his friend Phil Mitchell (Steve McFadden) that he has split up with Julie as she is in a relationship with another man, making him homeless.

Julie Haye was introduced in September 1997 as a love interest for the character Nigel Bates (played by Paul Bradley).

Henthorn had previously auditioned to play the minor role of a pregnancy counsellor for the character Bianca Jackson (Patsy Palmer).

[3] Having been called back to Elstree Studios to discuss the role with the casting director, Henthorn was told that EastEnders were creating a new "semi-regular" character, Julie Haye, specifically as a love interest for Nigel Bates.

[3] Actor Paul Bradley, who played Nigel, had decided to leave the serial the following year, reportedly for fear of being typecast.

[2] As Nigel was "such a popular character", and because he had such an unsuccessful love live throughout the course of the show, the producers of EastEnders felt that the viewing public would not want him to have anything other than a "happy ending".

Because the character Julie was in the process of being conceptualised, the casting director asked Henthorn to read through scenes from previous episodes of EastEnders between Nigel and his deceased wife, Debbie.

I ran all the way round the houses, up and down the steps, knocked on all the doors, peered through the windows of the Queen Vic, jumped around the garden and finally ended up sitting on Arthur's bench—exhausted and totally overwhelmed.

"[3] Viewers saw Nigel—dubbed "the Albert Square nerd"—fall in love with teacher Julie Hay as they tried to sort out his problematic stepdaughter, Clare (played by Gemma Bissix).

Julie's son, Josh, was played by Jon Lee, who went on to find greater fame as a singer in the successful pop band, S Club 7.

Nigel is initially shown to struggle with the guilt of moving on following the death of his wife Debbie, who was killed in the serial in 1995 in a hit-and-run accident.