When Emmerdale legend Charity Dingle (Emma Atkins) offered to be a surrogate so that her granddaughter Sarah (Katie Hill) could have a baby, it seemed like a straightforward thing to do. She had the medical tests to make sure she was healthy enough to carry a baby, had Sarah and Jacob (Joe-Warren Plant)’s embryo implanted and all seemed well.
Things are never straightforward for Charity Dingle, though, and after arguing with Mackenzie (Lawrence Robb), who was upset she went ahead with the surrogacy after refusing to try for another baby with him, she had sex with Ross Barton (Mike Parr) when she was very drunk.
In the aftermath of this, Charity realised the baby she was carrying could be hers and Ross’s, rather than the implanted embryo which might not have taken. A paternity test soon confirmed this was indeed the case, but Charity falsified the test results to prove to Ross that it wasn’t his baby.
Her plan then was to carry on with the pregnancy and hand the baby to Sarah and nobody would know any different.
The problem was that Vanessa (Michelle Hardwick) soon realised that Charity wasn’t sure about the parentage of the baby and assumed it must be Mackenzie’s child – and told him. This led to Mack furiously driving Charity towards Manchester airport to try to tell Sarah the truth before she and Jacob left for their honeymoon.
Unfortunately they were caught up in the massive road accident during the Corriedale episode and ended up in hospital.
In upcoming episodes, Mack insists on a paternity test, and when Ross hears about this he tells him not to get his hopes up.
Mack is pleased when Charity agrees that if the baby is theirs they’ll raise it together, as this is what he’s always wanted.
Ross becomes uncomfortable when he hears from Mack that he’s raising money for a second round of surrogacy for Sarah, realising that this means Charity isn’t carrying Sarah’s baby so the chances are that she’s carrying his baby.
Previously, Ross had heard by chance from Ryan (James Moore) that he’d taught Charity how to alter online documents. Putting two and two together, he works out that Charity lied and the baby is his, and he goes to speak to her.
When Ross confronts her, Charity has no option but to finally admit the truth. She tells him she lied and the baby is his.
Don't miss a Soaps scoop! Add us as a Preferred Source
As a loyal Metro Soaps reader, we want to make sure you never miss our articles when searching for stories. We have all the latest soaps news, spoilers, videos, and interviews, with a vibrant community of highly engaged readers.
Click here and tick Metro.co.uk to ensure you see stories from us first in Google Search.
Ross is astonished by what he’s hearing, and he immediately sets off to find Sarah. Is he about to blow Charity’s world up by revealing the truth to Sarah, Jacob and Mackenzie?