Gosh, did Keri Davies really confirm that the DNA story outcome had originally been planned differently? I know it's been confirmed that when they first introduced Rob (which was before SOC arrived, IIRC) they had it in mind to make him a replacement for Brian in the role of Ambridge Lothario. The change to the EA storyline came later, don't know why. Maybe somebody pointed out to them that the dynamic between Rob and Jess when she finally appeared on the scene was clearly indicative of an EA relationship?
I'm a bit hazy on the details now about what we know (ie what we heard on air) of what went on between Rob and Jess after she left. She turned up at BHC at one point and told Helen that she and Rob had slept together. Rob denied that, but we all thought it was probably true. We didn't hear them together, did we? We heard a few phone calls between them, though, which made it clear that they had been in some sort of contact and he wanted an end of it, or at any rate it all had to be on his terms.
There was also an odd scene where Hayley was in a changing room in Borchester and talked to another woman, whom she didn't recognise, but we did - it was Jess. What was the point of that, if there was one? I can't remember now.
Then she announced she was pregnant - did she come to BHC again? Again, I can't remember. Rob fulminated and swore blind to Helen that it couldn't be anything to do with him. After the baby was born, we heard that his parents had been to see Jess and seemed to accept that Rob was the father (or am I imagining that?). He refused to have a DNA test to start with, but she went to the CSA and Charlie had to order child support payments to be deducted from his salary. There was a presumption in law that he was the father because they were still married. The only way to overturn that was to have the DNA test, so eventually he did it. Richard Locke did the test, and Keri Davies confirmed on Twitter months later that there was no jiggery pokery about that, it was a genuine test and the result is not going to be overturned. It came back negative and Rob was jubilant.
Then we had the idiotic coda that when Rob and Richard Locke met again in December, the script had been written on the basis that they had never met before. The actors pointed out in the studio that they had met before, and a hurried and inept change was made at the last minute. So we ended up with Richard making the unprofessional remark that he was sure he'd met Rob before somewhere - not a thing an experienced GP would do, given the potential for embarrassment. That sounded as if it was significant in some way, but from KD's remarks it was clearly just ineptitude. 