The following article contains spoilers from an episode of Emmerdale that hasn’t aired on ITV yet, but is available to view on ITVX.
Marlon Dingle (Mark Charnock) has finally been reunited with daughter April Windsor (Amelia Flanagan) in Emmerdale, but everything has changed.
Yesterday, a special episode of the ITV soap aired that allowed an insight into what April went through when she disappeared on Christmas Day.
The young girl took off to the centre of Leeds, but quickly became homeless as a result of losing her money and not finding a place to stay through friends.
April lived in horrific conditions for around 6 weeks. She wore the same clothes for days, wasn’t able to wash, and suffered two devastating losses.
One of those was April’s friend dying as a result of being stabbed. The other, which brought her into hospital tonight, was giving birth to her stillborn baby.
Monday’s instalment of the show ended with Marlon and Rhona Goskirk (Zoe Henry) learning from PC Swirling that April had been found. As tonight’s episode opened, they were at the hospital.
At the reception desk, the nurse explained that April had suffered a post-partum haemorrhage. Rhona and Marlon thought there was some sort of mistake, but then it hit them April had kept her pregnancy a secret from them the entire time.
The shocking news saw PC Swirling apologise to Marlon and Rhona. He said he had no idea either, and perhaps could’ve told them about April’s pregnancy before they got to the hospital.
Marlon and Rhona spent a great deal of time in the waiting room, preparing for the moment the doctor would allow them to see April. Unfortunately, as time ticked on, they discovered she was going back into surgery as a result of an infection.
While she was in theatre, Marlon was overthinking, trying to find answers as to why April never mentioned her pregnancy. Rhona tried to calm her partner down and said it would be best if he just focused on the present moment.
When the doctor returned, she informed Marlon, Rhona and family liaison officer Anna that April was now in a private room.
It meant at last, after six very long weeks, Marlon could finally see his little girl.
Marlon entered the room and sat down, establishing within minutes that having a conversation wouldn’t be possible right away.
Instead, he sat down, held April’s hand, and simply told his daughter that he loves her.
