Rhona rumbles Paddy’s affair with Tess in Emmerdale when he starts behaving more oddly than usual, Zoe Henry tells Soaplife.
What makes Rhona suspicious?
“Paddy misdiagnoses a cow at Butler’s Farm and he is very flippant about it which isn’t like him. In fact, he’s quite rude to James [Bill Ward]. Rhona senses that he feels under pressure and when she asks him about it, he is quite evasive.”
How does she find out about the affair?
“She sits him down to talk about the cow and Paddy [Dominic Brunt] starts to tell her that he had a row with Tess [Nicola Stephenson]. Rhona can’t understand why Paddy would do that because Tess is their child’s teaching assistant. It’s like a jigsaw. Rhona starts fitting the pieces together and finally says, ‘Are you the affair that Tess has talked about?’.”
And he is…
“Paddy apologises which confirms it. He’s relieved it’s out there, but at the same time terrified he’s going to lose his wife.”
Is he?
“One minute Rhona wants to know every detail, where, when and how often, then she shouts that she doesn’t ever want to talk about it again. There’s a lot of unadulterated anger.”
Is she tempted to boot him out?
“He’s the love of her life, they have a child, they’re about to adopt a child, so there is a lot to lose. She doesn’t want to kick him out because she doesn’t want Social Services to know – she wants to carry on with the adoption. Paddy suggests he stays with Marlon [Mark Charnock] for a few days, but Rhona asks him not to.”
Is that a good idea?
“If I were Rhona’s friend, I would tell her to have some space. I think she believes that if everything is OK with the adoption, it somehow makes the pain of this less. She doesn’t want to have to think about the affair because it’s too difficult.”
Where do they go from here?
“I would love to see them work through it because I don’t want them to split up – I’d hate it if Dominic and I were ships that passed in the night and only saw each other in The Woolpack once a year. If Paddy is totally honest there’s a chance they can mend their marriage, but perhaps she needs time away.”
Emmerdale, ITV
