Jack Holden

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For the English long-distance runner see Jack Holden (athlete)

Jack Anthony Holden
First appearance	2005
Statistics
Gender	Male
Occupation	Police officer
Family	Kate Holden (mother, deceased), Tony Holden (father), Lucas Holden (brother)
Spouse	Martha Mackenzie (separated)
Portrayed by	Paul O'Brien

Jack Anthony Holden is a fictional character in the Australian soap opera Home and Away, portrayed by Paul O'Brien.

Jack and his family moved to Summer Bay after Jack, a police officer, shot a teenage girl dead in self-defence as she carried out an armed robbery. The girl's father, Harry Chambers, swore revenge on Jack and promised to follow him wherever he went. Following a town meeting at which they heard both sides of the story, the Summer Bay community accepted Jack's innocence and welcomed him with open arms. Jack asked Martha Mackenzie out, but she said no because she was still resentful about Jack pulling her over in her car for speeding. However, he kept trying.

Martha played a practical joke on Jack by planting a rubber spider in his bedroom (after having heard that spiders were Jack's greatest fear), which ended up going very wrong: a terrified Jack stumbled, fell, hit his head on a wardrobe and had to be taken to hospital to have emergency surgery on his ear, which was injured because of the fall. He became partially deaf for a short time. After Jack found out about Martha's practical joke, Martha said that she would do anything to make it up to Jack, so he took her to a cliff with sea underneath it, and told her to jump. Martha was reluctant to do so because she is afraid of heights, but she decided to do it anyway. Jack stopped her from jumping before she reached the edge, and after realising that Martha really would do anything to make it up to Jack, he set a new task and they engaged in a passionate kiss.

Martha and Jack then became a couple. Jack and Martha were together for a while, but after he lied about getting his hearing back, Martha got furious with him, storming out of his house and suggesting that they better split up. After that, Martha started dating Corey Anderson, Jack's police partner. Jack became deeply frustrated by this, and after Kim Hyde and Hayley Lawson's (Ella Scott Lynch) engagement party, he saw her at the diner and said, "I have never felt these feelings for any one else." She told him it was too late and that she was with Corey. Then, when Corey asked her to move to the city with him (he wanted to be closer to his mother, who is in a mental hospital), she accepted and they left promptly. On the journey over, they stopped for a picnic, which is when she finds liquid mercury in his backpack and a book with all the people he has killed crossed off from a list of jury members who sent his father to jail. He was the one poisoning Irene Roberts. Martha then went to ring Jack, who then went to find her. Finding out that she had seen his book of killings, Corey grabbed her, but she pulled free and ran for her life. Jack eventually found her, and then went to arrest Corey. Martha and Jack went back to being good friends, until Baby Noah's christening, were they were found flirting with each other by Matilda and Lucas who said, "It is obvious that you guys are meant to be together. So why don't you just get your acts together?" When Martha went into another room, Jack came and sat next to her on Hayley's bed, and said, "Maybe it is time we get our acts together". Martha smiled, and he kissed her, and they got back together again.

Jack planned to propose to Martha but pretended that he thought marriage was just a dumb tradition. As Martha really wanted to get married, she thought seriously about breaking up with him. Tasha had to tell Martha why Jack had been acting that way, and Martha ended up proposing to Jack. They became engaged. At Jack and Martha's wedding day, their happiness turned to tragedy after Summer Bay Stalker Zoe McCallister, along with her sidekick, corrupt police detective Tina Thompson, crashed the party, and there was an explosion at the barn. Both Zoe and Tina were killed in the blast, and Jack was severely injured. He was devastated when Martha was in the ill-fated helicopter crash, and bonded with Tasha, whose husband Robbie was also on the helicopter. Jack feared that Martha may never be found alive, and is oblivious to Tasha's growing feelings for him. Fortunately, Martha was found along with the other crash victims. Jack and Martha are very much in love.

On October 12, 2006's episode, Jack discovered that Peter was actually still alive, and was hiding out in a witness protection program. Somebody found out about this, and severely beat Jack in his office. He was later discovered and rushed to hospital, where Dr. Rachel Armstrong discovered that the liver Jack had transplanted into him cannot be Peter's because they both have different blood types. Jack's blood type is O-, and this is a rare blood type. Jack needed urgent surgery to repair the damage caused by the attacker, but the surgery could not be done because there was no compatible blood at the blood bank. Rachel discovered that Martha has a compatible blood type. Martha donated blood for Jack's surgery, but later did not want to visit him in recovery. In the diner, Martha met a man, who introduced himself as Ash Nader. Martha spent the night with him, and the following day she visited Jack in hospital. She said that she would give their marriage another go, and Ash then walked into Jack's room. Jack introduced him to Martha, and she acted as though they had not met before. Martha then wondered if she should tell Jack about the night she and Ash spent together.

Jack has recently started dating his physiotherapist Sam.