a fatal brain tumour. He then agrees to look after her children when she dies. When Jill does die, Jack keeps his promise and cares for her children, helping Sol flee from the police abroad. Jack embarks on several other relationships after Jill, including Geri Hudson's (Joanna Taylor) mother Jacqui and Izzy Cornwell's (Elize du Toit) mother Patty. Natalie Osborne (Tiffany Mulheron), Jack's troubled niece, arrives from Scotland for the half-term after her parents have marital problems. Natalie starts at Hollyoaks High School. However, her older sister Rachel arrives and tells Jack that Natalie is hiding that she has not got good grades at school in Scotland. For her own good, Jack sends her back home. Jack provides a home for the Dean family after their eviction from their home. After first being sceptical, he soon warms to the family. Jack then begins a relationship with Frankie Dean (Helen Pearson) after the collapse of her marriage to her husband Johnno (Colin Wells), and the couple later marry, after five years being a widower following the death of his wife, Jill. Frankie's three children Jake, Debbie and Craig accepted him as a new father, however Steph will never accepted him as her new father and refused to be close with him, causing Frankie and Steph's siblings angry at her, but, they understand that she remain close to her father Johnno. The nadir was when the Dog was destroyed in an explosion Jack and Frankie were out for a meal when the Dog exploded and Jack and Frankie nearly lost Darren, Steph, Craig, and Jake as they were trapped inside the pub when it exploded and caught fire. While they used insurance money to rebuild the pub, they stayed at a grimy bed and breakfast where the owner constantly treated them poorly. They were kicked out, and briefly lived with the McQueen family until finally Frankie could take no more and forced Jack to use the insurance money he had been pocketing to pay for a nice hotel until they could go back to their apartment. Jack and Frankie decide to start fostering disadvantaged adolescents. They first foster Barry "Newt" Newton (Nico Mirallegro). Darren (now played by Ashley Taylor Dawson) sells Frankie's jewellery to a pawn shop, and blames it on Newt. After Jack threatens to send him back into care, Darren is finally caught out. Darren develops a gambling addiction. During