Emmerdale‘s Charity Dingle gets close to breaking point next week following evil Dr Todd’s shocking sexual assault – and turns to alcohol and pills to numb her pain.
Struggling to process what she has been subjected to, Charity continues to keep the upsetting ordeal to herself and refuses to confide in anyone.
However, it’s clear to her concerned family something is not right, and they urge Charity to seek professional help – will she share the details of what Dr Todd has done, or fall even further into despair?
“This is a living nightmare,” explains our Emmerdale insider. “Charity is made of tough stuff and has come through dark times before, but this awful attack has left her feeling understandably fragile.
“She doesn’t want to burst Sarah’s baby bubble, hence saying nothing about Dr Todd’s actions. But how long can she hide the horror she has endured before it destroys her?”
Despite finding the courage to report the assault, more twists in the tale mean Charity’s nightmare is unfortunately continuing – with no one any the wiser. Not wanting to tell her husband Mackenzie the real reason behind her sudden erratic behaviour, Charity concocts a cover story to put him off the scent.
“Charity speaks to a doctor,” reveals our spy. “But she goes along with Mack’s assumption that she is suffering from postnatal depression, which Manpreet accepts as it explains her distress.
“After she’s prescribed medication by Manpreet, Charity feels terrible for misleading the medic and digging a deeper hole of deception.”
Mack later catches up with his wife after her GP appointment, and hopes her diagnosis means she can start on her road to recovery. However, an admission from Mack soon sends Charity deeper into her downward spiral.
Feeling powerless as he watches his other half struggle, Mack has already turned to Charity’s nearest and dearest for advice as to how to help her. But when he reveals that he has told Sarah about her gran’s suffering, all hell breaks loose between the couple.
“Charity is devastated,” continues our source. “Sarah is the last person she wants to be alerted to any of this. Charity already feels guilty over lying about Leyla’s biological parentage, and wants nothing else to threaten Sarah and Jacob’s family unit. If Todd was exposed, all the other secrets would unravel – Charity can’t let that happen.”
Not wanting to arouse Mack’s suspicions, Charity waits until she’s alone and privately breaks down. Unable to cope with her internalised trauma, she consumes sleeping pills and wine. Poor Charity is hitting the self-destruct button, endangering her mental and physical health.
Seeking out her gran to see how she’s doing, supportive Sarah admits to feeling guilty – if she hadn’t asked Charity to be her surrogate in the first place, she wouldn’t be feeling like this.
Mortified that Sarah is blaming herself, Charity resolves to put her granddaughter’s mind at rest. But as she starts to speak, she’s stopped in her tracks…
“She just can’t say the words,” explains our insider. “Sarah tries to get Charity to open up, and for a split second it looks as though she might say something. In the end, Charity glosses over it and puts her stress down to hormones and a lack of sleep – although she implies there’s more going on, she makes it clear it has nothing to do with Sarah.”
Even though she’s shut down Sarah from digging too deeply, Charity feels worse than ever for continuing to lie to her family. Unable to share the true pain she’s living with, Charity has only succeeded in making Sarah feel pushed out.
Upset Sarah cries on Mack’s shoulder, offloading her remorse about the problems the surrogacy has caused Charity. Alone with her pain, Charity can’t see a way out of her despair as her world falls apart. Will the truth about Todd’s crime ever come to light?
