[1] Her storylines have included teenage pregnancy, abortion, cheating in her exams, struggling to cope when Ian has a mental breakdown and runs away, feuding, taking over Ian's businesses, and multiple relationships, including an affair with her best friend's father, Max Branning (Jake Wood).

The twins are born on the same day Ian's father, Pete Beale (Peter Dean), dies in a car accident with his girlfriend, Rose Chapman (Petra Markham).

Ian hires a private investigator, who locates Cindy in Italy and Ian, his stepfather Phil Mitchell (Steve McFadden) and Phil's brother Grant Mitchell (Ross Kemp), go to Italy and take Steven and Peter (now played by Stuart Stevens).

Progressing into her teens, Lucy becomes rebellious—stealing, smoking, drinking alcohol, lying, playing truant from school, being surly to Ian and Jane, and taking an interest in boys.

Lucy stays with Jane's brother Christian Clarke (John Partridge) briefly, has a relationship with an older boy, Olly Greenwood (Bart Edwards), decides to take the contraceptive pill and engages in blackmail to earn money.

Lucy returns to Walford for the funeral of Pat Evans (Pam St Clement) and is angry to find that Ian is engaged to Mandy Salter (Nicola Stapleton).

Having noticed Whitney Dean's (Shona McGarty) attraction to Tyler Moon (Tony Discipline), Lucy causes trouble by upset by sleeping with him.

Following her father's disappearance, Lucy struggles to keep his businesses afloat and has trouble with Derek Branning (Jamie Foreman) who repeatedly steals money from the café and chip shop.

Lauren's parents bring Ian back to Walford, and when Lucy opens the door, she slams it in his face.

However, Sharon Rickman (Letitia Dean) convinces her to give Ian another chance and she agrees, providing that the businesses and properties are transferred to her so she will never be in that situation again.

Ian steals cheques from the business account to pay for his new restaurant; Lucy believes that Janine Butcher (Charlie Brooks) supplied the extra money.

When she discovers the truth, she has a vicious row with Ian, which is interrupted by Peter's (now played by Ben Hardy) return to Walford.

Lucy gets upset when Joey insists that they do not have a future together and Ian takes advantage of this, manipulating her into signing a contract that gives control of the businesses back to him.

That afternoon, police officers DC Emma Summerhayes (Anna Acton) and DS Cameron Bryant (Glen Wallace) tell Ian that Lucy is dead.

It also transpires that Lucy had been writing a letter to Ian shortly before Bobby hit her, telling her father to wake her when he returns home, that she has resolved to change and she loves him.

Bobby (now portrayed by Clay Milner Russell) is released after three years, in 2019, and struggles with his guilt; in the Beale house, he begins seeing visions of Lucy.

In August 2004 it was announced that Rothery, along with Joseph Shade, who played Lucy's twin brother Peter Beale, had been axed from EastEnders as producers were looking to mature the characters.

"[7] The storyline involved Lucy offering to have the baby so that it could be brought up by Ian and her step mother Jane (Laurie Brett).

An Albert Square insider said: "Lucy's run rings around her father Ian and stepmum Jane for years.

[15] On 21 February 2014, it was revealed that Hetti Bywater would leave the show, ending in a "raw", "emotional" and "gritty" storyline, with the character being killed off in the spring.

"[16] Treadwell-Collins also stated that it would give Adam Woodyatt (who plays Lucy's father Ian Beale) "a big chance to shine" throughout the storyline.

[19] Writers chose to explore Bobby's guilt over Lucy's murder and struggle adapting back to Walford, following his return.

Bywater also appears as Lucy in the online exclusive clip, called "Under Suspicion", which sees Jay Brown (Jamie Borthwick) under questioning by the police.

In July 2007, Gareth McLean of The Guardian lamented the lack of strong female characters in EastEnders, noting that Lucy "is yet to come into her own".

[21] Fellow Guardian critic Grace Dent commented on the repetitive nature of EastEnders storylines by comparing Lucy's relationship with Jane to the fraught mother-daughter bond between Kat (Jessie Wallace) and Zoe Slater (Michelle Ryan).

[22] Lucy was used by Jane Simon of the Daily Mirror to highlight a trend in the soap for husbands to prioritise their "Chavvy girlfriends" over their "doting wives", with the critic noting: "With Max (Jake Wood) and Rob (Stuart Laing) choosing Stacey and Dawn (Kara Tointon) over Tanya (Jo Joyner) and May (Amanda Drew), the feckless males of Albert Square are clearly voting with their, er, feet.

[25] When EastEnders embarked upon a storyline which saw Lucy's peer Whitney Dean (Shona McGarty) abused by the ephebophile Tony King (Chris Coghill), the Daily Mirror's Tony Stewart questioned whether viewers would take the plot seriously, given the "sexually precocious" nature of the soap's storylines, and the fact that only recently, Lucy, who is just a year younger than Whitney, had almost given her virginity to her older boyfriend.

"[27] The 2010 storyline in which Lucy falls pregnant and Ian tries to scare her into having an abortion by showing her a DVD of childbirth borrowed from one of his employees prompted a complaint to Ofcom from the woman featured giving birth in the footage shown, alleging "that her privacy and that of her baby son had been infringed by the broadcast of two EastEnders episodes.

"[28] After investigation from Ofcom, the complaint was not upheld as the footage was in the public domain as part of a National Childbirth Trust DVD.

In 2020, Sara Wallis and Ian Hyland from The Daily Mirror placed Lucy 71st on their ranked list of the best EastEnders characters of all time, calling her a troublemaker.