Emmerdale’s Ross Barton has been desperate to find out if “menace” Charity Dingle is carrying his baby after their drunken night together, and now their stars have had their say
Emmerdale’s Charity and Ross stars have broken their silence after their soap romp was exposed.
Fans watched on Thursday (August 14) as Charity (Emma Atkins) had a flashback to the night she kissed her ex Vanessa (Michelle Hardwick). After Michelle rejected her, she found comfort in her former flame Ross Barton (Michael Parr) and the pair clearly spent the night together.
However, he’s now trying to find out if Charity’s baby is his after her surrogacy pregnancy announcement (that she’s carrying granddaughter Sarah’s baby). Charity tried to reassure him by telling him she’s carrying an embryo and it’s not his, but he’s still seeking answers and didn’t get clarity as the pub celebrations rolled on.
Actors Emma Atkins and Michael Parr have now addressed the baby storyline. Asked if Ross believes Charity when she told him he’s not the father, Michael said: “No, he doesn’t believe her. 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.
“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.” On whether Ross trusts Charity, he said: “No, and nobody should trust Charity. She’s a menace.”
Teasing what’s to come for the pair, he said: “Ross is like a dog with a bone he’s not going to let this lie and won’t be fobbed off by Charity trying to baffle him with science. He added: “He knows Charity too well and he saw her face in the pub when everyone was excited and celebrating.
“Her expression said it all and he clocked it. He knows she either knows or she’s in doubt and he’s going to keep going until he gets the truth.”
Emma Atkins admitted that Charity is “in such a mess”. She said: “There’s just so many avenues now of dilemma – she’s stuck in this hellhole of what do I do next and who do I turn to and it’s cataclysmic holding in that kind of secret. Surely at some point she’s definitely going to implode.
“I think the audience enjoys witnessing that, don’t they? They like to witness someone holding a secret. Who is she going to tell, who’s going to find out, when will Ross cotton on fully? There’s all of these things spinning through her mind. “
Asked about the conflict with Mack, who would have loved to have a baby with Charity, she said: “There are so many emotions going on which again, you know puts more of a spotlight onto Charity’s awful secret and dilemma.
“The situation was awful to begin with as it began with poor Sarah’s position. It’s so sad for Sarah as her situation is awful. She so wanted a child but can’t physically have one. And in real life there are poor girls in that situation with cervical cancer or who have had to have a hysterectomy.
“So Charity had good intentions initially to help Sarah in her plight to have a child but now it’s clashing with the awful situation she’s in. The fact Mack is now so upset as he and Charity lost a baby and it was Mack’s dream was to have a child with Charity but Charity told him way back when that it wasn’t going to happen. How she wasn’t going to go down that route again. But now she has but for someone else. He’s rightfully hurt by this although wanting to support her.
“There are just so many layers to this story. 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?”
Discussing Charity’s panic in the pub, Emma said: “Charity’s lies – trying to keep on top of them. I’ve had to work to keep on top of the chronology when filming as we film things out of order. But I love it and I think that particular episode, when she’s in the pub after the flashback. You can see what she’s going through.
“I think that episode is going to shine a light on Charity’s foolishness. You kind of want to feel sorry for her, but she gets herself in these situations. She thought she had lost the baby after the fall in the woods. So she went out and got drunk, she took solace with Vanessa. She throws herself at her knowing they have this fantastic chemistry, which was brilliant play and I love working with Michelle, and I can’t wait for the audience to see that because I know that there’s so many people that loved that connection. Then within five minutes, she comes out, having been rejected only to then fall into the arms, very drunkenly of an equally drunk Ross, who’s got a bottle of whisky and she’s like, yeah, self sabotage, here I come.
“I think she does all this because she knows she’s got to somehow then wake up and tell Sarah that she might have lost the baby from the fall from going for a walk in the woods. I love all the different levels, the complexity of it all. It’s just, oh no, here she goes again. What’s she done now?”
Have you joined Threads? Follow Daily Star to keep up to date on all things showbiz here.
Want all the biggest Showbiz and TV news straight to your inbox? Sign up for our free Daily Star Showbiz newsletter.
