The weight of Charity Dingle’s baby secret becomes too much for her to bear on Emmerdale next week – and Mackenzie Boyd clocks that she’s hiding something.
With her husband safely back home after his ordeal with John Sugden, Charity’s forced to step up her lies to cover up the betrayal which could destroy her entire family. But with Mackenzie knowing her better than anyone, will he realise she’s covering up a huge secret? And would he ever be able to get past it?
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“I think Charity and Ross would be very difficult for Mack to get over,” reveals actor Lawrence Robb, who plays her clueless other half. “He’s very relieved to be back home and be saved. He is looking forward to rebuilding what he had with Charity and his family.”
For the weeks Mack was locked away in John’s creepy bunker, Charity was able to disguise her true feelings in front of excitable granddaughter Sarah Sugden. With Sarah’s focus solely on the baby, Charity could hide her daily panic that the baby might be Ross Barton’s.
Now Mack’s back in the picture, he’s starting to suss that Charity is behaving weirdly. But will she blame her weird moods on his own struggles?
“He’s still in a lot of pain and suffering from a bit of PTSD,” explains Lawrence. “It will leave emotional and physical scars. He was locked up for a long time. Now he’s overflowing with love and relief that Charity didn’t really believe he’d up and leave her…”
The DNA test results are pending, but around her granddaughter, Charity is playing the perfect surrogate. Mack begins to question if Charity is worried that Sarah is getting carried away too soon, but his wife quickly dismisses his worries and changes the subject. Will Mack let it drop, or learn the awful truth?
“Because the baby daddy could be Ross, it’s a more poignant betrayal,” admits the star. “Mack doesn’t have a leg to stand on because he did a very similar thing with Chloe a couple of years ago. But Ross nearly killed him a few months ago and they’ve never seen eye to eye.”
Related: Emmerdale’s 7 loose ends which point to John Sugden’s return
The results of the paternity test are days away. Will Charity be able to keep the results secret if her worst fears come true? After coming so close to losing Mackenzie, will she do everything in her power to keep their marriage together?
“There’s a lot more drama ahead with Ross and Charity,” teases Lawrence. “But there’s also something with Mackenzie and Sarah. She’s struggling with a secret too…”
Emmerdale airs on weeknights at 7.30pm on ITV1, and streams on ITVX.
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