Exploring Charity Dingle’s tragic past and family in Emmerdale

Emmerdale character Charity Dingle went to therapy in last night’s episode and sobbed over her dad’s abandonment of her. But as she makes a breakthrough over her past, what happened to her parents and is her dad Obadiah still alive?

Charity also spoke about her mum, who took her own life. Although Obadiah let her believe it was cancer and then kicked his 13-year-old daughter out.

The struggling landlady, who is suffering from PTSD after killing Harry Harris at Christmas in self-defence, has had a pretty tragic life. What has happened to Charity?

Emmerdale: Who are Charity Dingle’s parents?

Charity Dingle is the daughter of Kathleen and Obadiah Dingle. She is their only child.

Obadiah is Zak Dingle’s cousin.

What happened to Kathleen and Obadiah Dingle?

Charity told Mackenzie that her mum killed herself when she was a child.

She left a note for Obadiah and then threw herself off a cliff. Obadiah is a religious man and was unable to cope with the fact Kathleen had taken her own life and told people she died of cancer.

Charity never knew the truth about her mother until 2018, when she went to visit Obadiah.

Meanwhile, Obadiah is still believed to be alive and last appeared in the soap back in 2018.

What happened between Obadiah and Charity?

After Kathleen’s death, Obadiah felt Charity was in the way. At 13, Charity fell pregnant with her second cousin, Cain Dingle‘s, child.

Obadiah was not happy with the news and kept Cain from Charity saying she ran off with another boy, but she hadn’t.

When Charity went into labour, Obadiah left his daughter alone at the hospital to give birth. After Charity’s little girl was born, Obadiah then handed the baby over to his alcoholic friend Pat Jones.

Pat raised the baby as her own and called her Debbie.

Charity struggled with giving her baby up and Obadiah soon grew fed up with his daughter and threw her out of the house.

She turned to prostitution to make money. It was then she encountered police officer Mark Bails. He paid for her to come and talk to him at his flat. However he raped her and kept her in his flat for months, where he and his friends abused her.

Charity found out she was pregnant with her second child and began drinking to try and end the pregnancy. But she stopped when she felt her baby kick for the first time.

She managed to escape Bails and gave birth to a boy, in hospital. She believed Ryan was dead and fled the hospital, however he survived and was raised by the midwife, Irene Stocks. He and Charity were reunited in 2018.

Charity phoned her dad when she was in labour with Ryan, but he had heard about her life of prostitution and hung up on her.

In 2016, Obadiah had given up alcohol and was trying to get his life back on track.

He sent Zak a letter to give Charity, but Zak and his then-wife Joanie, decided against giving it to her, fearing it may tip her over the edge.

Instead Zak destroyed the letter, but wrote down his cousin’s address just in case.

Charity and Obadiah reunite in Emmerdale

In 2018, following the sentencing of her rapist Mark Bails, Charity decide to see her dad and Zak gave her Obadiah’s address.

Obadiah told her he has Parkinson’s disease. It was then that he revealed to her Kathleen’s real cause of death.

He also told Charity the real reason he use to take her to the beach every day when she was little was because he wanted to find Kathleen’s body.

The meeting turned sour when he blamed Charity for his drinking problem, as he tried to drink a bottle of whisky. Charity stated that he and all the other horrible men in her life have been using her as an excuse for her bad behaviour.

Charity smashed the bottle and stormed out, ignoring her father as she walked away.

Will Charity’s dad return to Emmerdale?

With Charity opening up about her past, it has sparked interest in whether we might see Obadiah Dingle again in the coming weeks.

Charity is clearly struggling as her ‘stress bucket’ has filled up and spilled over following Harry’s death. As she pushes away everyone near and dear, including husband Mack, is revisiting her traumatic childhood her only chance?

It isn’t known whether Charity’s dad is on his way back to the Dales, but it’s possible that a final confrontation with him could be the closure Charity needs.

Who played Obadiah Dingle?

Obadiah was played by actor Paul Copley. Paul has appeared in Doctors, Vera, Doc Martin, Holby City and The Bill.

He is also well-known for playing Mr Mason in Downton Abbey.

Paul has had three roles in Coronation Street. He played a photographer and a character called Ivor Priestly.

He returned to Corrie in 2020 playing Arthur Medwin, a love interest for Evelyn Plummer. However his character left in 2021.