Julia begins working on reception at the Riverside Practice in January 2003, alongside ex-husband Mac McGuire. The two begin their relationship again, which leads to Mac proposing to Julia, which subsequently leads them to get married for a second time. Julia catches Mac kissing his ex-wife Kate McGuire, and forces them to leave with their son to Ireland. Julia, now divorced in 2007, buys Mac's share of The Mill, and becomes the Practice Manager. In May 2007, Julia reluctantly dismisses her friend Donna Parmar due to a breach of patient confidentiality. Donna is replaced with another of Julia's friends, Vivien March. In May 2009, Julia persuades mentally ill colleague Ruth Pearce to move in with her due to her instability, where Julia cares for her until Ruth returns to work. In 2010, Julia supports nurse Michelle Corrigan when she chose to work as an army nurse in Afghanistan. Michelle's mother, Vera Corrigan, was angry with Julia as Vera blames Julia for Michelle's enlisting. Months later, Julia falls ill with symptoms of delusions and confusion; later diagnosed as Lyme disease. Whilst at home recovering from the disease, she becomes the victim of sexual assault by colleague Charlie Bradfield, who is later reported and dismissed from The Mill for misconduct. In 2012, Julia meets garage owner Martin Millar. After parking her car in the way of his garage and therefore meeting, the two begin dating. After the couple begin not to trust each other through various acts, the two break up. They later get back together, but when Julia googles Martin and finds out that he was accused of arson, they end their relationship. Martin later reveals that he has had five wives, and that he had a daughter with his third, Sarah. Julia is stunned by this, and rejects Martin. She meets up with Martin again, but when Martin says that he wants to retire and move to Wales, she once again rejects him, as she does not want this. They keep arguing about this, and whilst they are, their car crashes with another vehicle, and they are both knocked unconscious. Martin and Julia survive, and the two embrace. Julia's son Patrick arrives, wanting to take her to his house, so she can recover. However, after thinking about whether or not she wants a future with Martin, she decides she does, and goes to live with him in Wales.
Development
Departure
After Keen made the decision to leave the soap after nine years, Miles Anderson was cast, playing Martin, to coincide with the departure of Julia. Digital Spy said of her departure storyline; "Fans should also keep an eye out for a possible new love interest for Julia when she gets to know garage owner Martin Millar in a few weeks' time. It sounds like there's lots on the way for Julia in the next few weeks". Keen said of Martin's and Julia's relationship; "She's fighting it all the way, because she's had so many disastrous relationships in her life, so now she tends to take the negative point of view towards how something will turn out. Martin's really great because he won't take any nonsense and he's not taking no for an answer. He's forcing Julia to really give it a shot, and she needs that. She's obviously very attracted to him, too, so they could be very good together". Of the car stunt she said that it was filmed "on a mad, stormy, windy, rainy day". She called the stunt "phenomenal" and "amazing" saying, "In the end the scenes looked incredible because of that. It was very exciting for everybody, as we don't often get to do stunts like that on Doctors".
Return
In November 2019, Doctors began filming for the 20th anniversary, and it was announce that as part of the celebrations for the milestone, Keen would return in March 2020. Julia is reintroduced when a documentary is being made about The Mill, to film a segment. She also supports Jimmi Clay with adjusting to normal life after his release from prison.
Reception
For her portrayal of Julia, Keen was nominated in the category of "Best Actress" at the 2005 and 2011 British Soap Awards. The character was selected as one of the "top 100 British soap characters" by industry experts for a poll to be run by What's on TV, with readers able to vote for their favourite character to discover "Who is Soap's greatest Legend?" Julia's car crash was nominated for the "Spectacular Scene of the Year" award at The British Soap Awards 2013.
