Things are about to go from bad to worse for Rhona Goskirk (Zoe Henry) and Marlon Dingle (Mark Charnock) in Emmerdale, with the once rock-solid couple now on the brink of permanent separation.
Their relationship was put under strain when Gus Malcolms (Alan McKenna) came into their lives. Rhona’s ex husband wanted to use the embryos the couple had had frozen during their marriage but Rhona refused. Gus went ahead and used them anyway and baby Ivy was the result.
When Ivy’s birth mother died not long after the birth, Rhona became involved in caring for the baby after Gus couldn’t cope. The bond that grew between them led eventually to her ‘kidnapping’ the baby to try to stop Gus from moving to France with her.
Rhona was found not guilty of kidnap in an ensuing trial, but Gus was later sent to prison for fraud over stealing the embryos. Rhona’s victim impact statement, changed at the very last minute without Marlon’s knowledge, ensured that Gus got a longer sentence.
While Marlon supported Rhona through most of this saga and even developed a huge bond of love with baby Ivy himself, there was a lot about Rhona’s behaviour that didn’t sit well with him, specifically the way she made huge decisions without talking them through with him first and without thinking how they would impact their children April (Amelia Flanagan) and Leo (Harvey Rogerson).
The kidnapping of Ivy was obviously a huge one, but the final straw for Marlon was when she changed the impact statement in court. Marlon felt that was unnecessarily cruel, given that they’d already agreed with Gus that they would look after Ivy while he was in prison.
Since then, the pair have been at odds and have even been sleeping separately. Things came to a head during a dinner party at Tom and Belle (James Chase and Eden Taylor-Draper)’s, when Marlon and Rhona niggled at each other constantly before things exploded in a heated stand-up argument.
In upcoming episodes Marlon is still furious with Rhona about her past actions and when he comes home to find her talking to Charles (Kevin Mathurin) about having Ivy christened he fumes that once again she’s making major decisions without him.
Rhona explains that Charles raised the subject first, but Marlon counters that she always has a plausible explanation for cutting him out of any decision. Once again their tempers flare and Marlon reaches breaking point. He flings a pan of food at the floor in a rage.
Unable to work out whether he even wants their marriage to continue, Marlon decides to go on a camping trip with Paddy (Dominic Brunt) to give himself time to think things through. He tells Paddy that he’s seriously thinking about divorcing Rhona.
Paddy reminds him of the effort it took to get back to normality after his stroke and says that he should use the same tenacity to get his marriage back on track.
Back at Smithy, Mary (Louise Jameson) has the same message for her daughter as she urges Rhona to do whatever it takes to save her relationship.
Will Rhona and Marlon decide to fight for their marriage? Or is the rift between them now too deep?
