Poor baby Leyla, eh? What a mess Emmerdale’s newest villager has been born into.
When Charity Dingle (Emma Atkins) pledged to act as a surrogate for her granddaughter, Sarah Sugden (Katie Hill) and partner, Jacob Gallagher (Joe-Warren Plant), who could’ve ever predicted the sheer carnage that would follow?
Well, I suppose any long-term viewer of Emmerdale who knows anything of Charity’s backstory and propensity for finding herself in the centre of a storm, which is, more often than not, entirely of her own creation might’ve.
With Sarah unsuitable for traditional adoption agencies due to her fanconi anemia effectively confirming a shorter lifespan and unable to conceive due to an emergency hysterectomy, Charity stepped in and after two attempts at IVF, it seemingly worked.
…only it didn’t, really. Because Charity was already pregnant, and not by husband, Mackenzie Boyd (Lawrence Robb), either. No, the baby was the result of a drunken bunk-up with Ross Barton (Michael Parr).
When Ross discovered Charity’s pregnancy, he was instantly aware of the chance that the baby was his and demanded a DNA test. Charity being Charity falsified the results and she set about continuing her life, trying her best to ignore the fact that the results showed that it actually was hers and Ross’ baby was growing inside of her.
When Charity divulged her secret to Chas Dingle (Lucy Pargeter), she agreed to keep it, despite her fury at Charity for creating so much trouble. She wasn’t as lucky with Vanessa Woofield (Michelle Hardwick), who told Mack that the baby could potentially be his.
Mack’s eagerness to break the news to Sarah and Jacob saw them entangled in the explosive Corriedale pile up, though Charity managed to silence him before he could destroy everything, telling him to take a DNA test, knowing he couldn’t possibly be the dad.
He’d told Ross, though, who’d put two and two together, realising that the baby couldn’t be Mack’s, but almost certainly was his. Though he threatened to blow Charity’s secret, he ultimately decided not to.
This week saw the Charity go into labour in Mack’s broken down car. When Ross saved them and took them to hospital, the trio were stuck in a loft while Charity delivered the baby, though she began to bleed heavily, requiring urgent medical intervention.
Next week sees Jacob and Katie utterly elated to welcome baby Leyla (named after Jacob’s late mother, Leyla Harding (Roxy Shahidi) home, basking in the joy of finally becoming parents.
The next day, Ross and Mack visit the now-complete family, with a gift from Ross and Charity’s son, Moses (Arthur Cockroft). Ross is immediately flooded with emotion, and finds it incredibly difficult when Jacob suggests he hold the baby that he delivered.
Despite his reluctance, Jacob joyfully invites Ross to the family gathering he and Sarah have planned to properly welcome Leyla home.
Long time Emmerdale fans will know that an emotional Ross is the most dangerous and now living in the same village as his baby daughter, will he be able to contain himself and stay away from his daughter? Or is he about to destroy the Dingle family for good?
