Mackenzie Boyd (Lawrence Robb) recently gave his wife Charity Dingle (Emma Atkins) an ultimatum in Emmerdale. If she didn’t give up her plan to be a surrogate for granddaughter Sarah (Katie Hill)’s baby, their marriage was over. And in coming episodes, as the plan moves ahead, their relationship is in the balance.
When Sarah had to have life-saving surgery that included having a hysterectomy, she knew that her dream of being a mother had been shattered.
Unable to cope with his granddaughter’s sadness at a time when he was also grieving the death of his son Nate (Jurell Carter), it was Cain Dingle (Jeff Hordley) who first floated the idea of surrogacy as a way to help Sarah become a mum.
It was soon clear that, because of Sarah’s life-limiting condition of Fanconi anaemia, surrogacy agencies wouldn’t consider helping her.
Cain’s one attempt at contacting a surrogate informally didn’t work out either. So Charity came up with the idea of being the surrogate herself.
‘Once she’s set a decision in place she doesn’t really back out of stuff,’ Emma Atkins told us. ‘She commits. She goes full pelt without thinking of any of the consequences.’ So Charity went ahead and had the tests to see if she was suitable, reasoning that she could talk to her husband Mackenzie about it if she proved to be a suitable candidate.
Unfortunately he got wind of the scheme before that could happen, courtesy of Eric Pollard (Chris Chittell) who was concerned that his grandson Jacob (Joe-Warren Plant) was making a mistake by getting involved as the sperm donor part of the scheme.
Understandably, Mack was fuming. It wasn’t that long ago that he and Charity lost a baby they were expecting when she had an ectopic pregnancy. In the wake of this he expressed a hope that they would try again, but Charity shut that down.
Now Mack has been left trying – and failing – to understand why Charity would go through a pregnancy for Sarah, but not to have their child.
Emma Atkins told us that Charity has some reservations, but prioritises Sarah: ‘I think Charity just decides the best thing to do is back Sarah all the way. So you sort of see a lot of light and shade. One minute she’s very for it, and the next minute, she’s struggling with the obvious, with her health complications and her own as well being the age that she is so there’s all of that.’
For Mack, Charity’s approach is incomprehensible. As she and Sarah get ready to go to the hospital for the procedure, he makes excuses and says he needs to work at Butlers. On his way there he bumps into Aaron (Danny Miller), who questions why he isn’t at the hospital supporting Charity.
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He urges Mack to go and talk to his wife about his feelings, so Mack rushes to the fertility clinic, where Charity tells him the procedure went well. The family are in celebratory mood, but Mack has missed his chance to discuss his feelings.
Later, Aaron again urges Mack to talk about how he’s feeling to Charity, and when Charity is overwhelmed by too much TLC from Sarah and Jacob and sends them out, Mack grabs his chance to talk to her on her own.
Charity admits she does have some concerns about what’s happening. Will Mack open up to her about how he feels?
