Emmerdale stars break silence on Charity Dingle's surprise cheating twist in new "whirlpool of awfulness"

And while a reunion could have been on the cards, Vanessa turned Charity out onto the village street, rejecting her advances.

Charity then found Ross Barton (Michael Parr), who offered her comfort. But with Ross now aware of Charity's surrogacy pregnancy, he pressed her to know if the baby could potentially be his.

Charity tried to reassure him that she is carrying an embryo, but as the celebrations continued, Ross's question regarding the baby's paternity remained unanswered.

"It's absolutely brilliant to play knowing that Charity is in such a mess now," Atkins said of the shock romantic twist.

She said: "This has created a huge element of conflict for her, and as an actor you can't hope for a better storyline.

"When you're just in the midst of chaos, dilemma and moral questioning of your own character, it makes you go, how are you going to get yourself out of this one?

"And I know the audience will just be like, 'Oh my God, what will she do? Who can she tell?' Because I think they all are going to immediately jump to the idea of, hang on, then it's not Sarah and Jacob's baby."

And for Ross, he doesn't believe Charity in the slightest that the baby isn't his.

"I think he's desperate to find out the answer because it comes with such responsibility, having another child, it's a lot of pressure on him because he's not doing so well with work right now and his living situation isn’t ideal as he's always swapping and changing," Parr explained of Ross's emotions.

He added: "Plus he’s just met his brother Lewis. There's a lot going on for him in his head, so he just needs to get to the bottom of this. So he can get a good night's sleep."

As Charity holds onto such a major secret, she is keeping it from someone who will be hurt the most: Mack.

It's no secret that Mack (Lawrence Robb) would have loved a baby with Charity, and Atkins has explained that Mack is "rightfully hurt" by her choosing to be a surrogate for Sarah despite telling him a child between him and her was never going to happen.

"There are just so many layers to this story," Atkins continued. "So Charity had thought she had closed the door on having another child and that prospect killed Mackenzie in many ways - she was aware of that, so Charity now holds all that guilt of how he is feeling.

"And now this new situation, so this all comes back up to haunt her, and it's just a sort of whirlpool of awfulness. And what will she do?"

Read more:

• Emmerdale must avoid these tired soap twists with John Sugden's downfall
• 7 Emmerdale spoilers next week: Aaron and Robert succumb to temptation and Mack finds John clue
• Emmerdale's Ryan Hawley teases Robert and Aaron "love scene" that sparks the next chapter of his storyline
• Emmerdale star on Robert's suspicions over scheming John and Nate's murder: "He's onto him"
• Emmerdale's Joe Absolom teases bad boy Ray’s future and mystery link to the village
• Bradley Johnson reveals Vinny's "emotional" sexuality story takes a dark turn in Emmerdale

Emmerdale airs weeknights at 7:30pm on ITV1. Stream on ITVX.

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