Emmerdale Charity Ryan Noah and Debbie
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Emmerdale’s Charity Dingle: Pregnant again and her dramatic past

What's the tragedy in Charity's past?

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Charity Dingle arrived in Emmerdale for her cousin Butch’s funeral early in 2000, along with cousin Cain and her Uncle Shadrach.

She nicked Eric Pollard’s wallet and framed cousin Sam for it – and she’s been causing trouble ever since.

More than 20 years later, Charity is a vital part of Emmerdale, beloved of fans, and has been at the centre of so many dramas in her time that it’s hard to keep track.

She’s now found herself pregnant with her fifth child.

But who are her other children? And who are all their dads?

Read more: Emmerdale star Emma Atkins reveals the real reason Charity wants an abortion

Charity looking worried in Emmerdale
Charity is facing a really tough decision (Credit: ITV)

Charity Dingle’s first husband

Not long after Charity Dingle arrived in Emmerdale, she started a relationship with lord of the manor Chris Tate.

At first, it was purely a business arrangement – Pretty Woman style – but when Chris’s sister Zoe offered Charity £5000 to leave, she realised she had developed feelings for her ‘boss’ and the pair started dating for real.

With tensions rising between Charity and Zoe, things took a surprising turn when the women began an affair. Charity ended their romance when Zoe got too keen, but her former lover didn’t take it well and threatened to tell Chris the truth.

When Charity and Chris got engaged, Zoe blackmailed Charity. But she told Chris the truth and the pair got hitched.

When Charity cheated with her cousin Cain, however, Chris took brutal revenge. He killed himself and framed Charity for his murder, and she went to prison.

Charity married Chris Tate (Credit: ITV/Shutterstock)

Charity and Tom King

When she was released from jail, Charity started a romance with the new owner of Home Farm, Tom King. He proposed, but his daughter-in-law, Sadie, was determined to get rid of Charity.

She hired Cain to set Charity up. He kissed his ex, a photographer snapped the evidence and Sadie gave Tom the pics. He was furious and jilted Charity at the altar.

Not long after, Charity left the village.

Another doomed wedding

When Debbie Dingle – Charity’s daughter – crashed the wedding of her secret boyfriend Michael Conway back in 2009, hoping to stop him marrying someone else, she was horrified to discover his bride was Charity!

Debbie and Cain told Michael all about Charity’s shocking past, and he ran!

Cain and Charity Dingle in Emmerdale reunited

Having been on and off partners since they were teenagers, with Charity Dingle in Emmerdale for good, she and Cain reunited and Charity proposed.

Cain secretly arranged the wedding but Charity wasn’t impressed and admitted she didn’t want to tie the knot. Another wedding that wasn’t to be!

Charity married Jai
Charity and Jai were happy for a while (Credit: ITV)

Charity and Jai Sharma

For a while it looked like Charity had met the love of her life when she settled down with Jai Sharma. They married and were happy – for a while.

But Jai wanted a baby, and Charity didn’t, which caused problems for the couple.

And when he had a one-night-stand with Rachel Breckle and she got pregnant it was curtains for another one of Charity’s marriages.

Charity and Declan were as bad as each other (Credit: ITV/Shutterstock)

Marrying Declan Macey

On the day former lover Cain married Moira Barton, Charity tied the knot with Declan Macey. The two partners were as bad as each other, and their romance was built on lies and deception from the get-go.

So it was no surprise when she fell pregnant that she decided not to keep the baby.

She lied to Declan she’d had a miscarriage, but he found out the truth.

After murder attempts, poisonings, a dramatic watery confrontation, and a hostage situation. Declan escaped and Charity was single once more.

Fans are desperate for Vanity to reunite (Credit: ITV)

Charity Dingle finds true love with Vanessa Woodfield in Emmerdale?

Much to fans’ delight, Charity started a romance with vet Vanessa Woodfield in 2017. It quickly became obvious that the pair were meant to be together.

They got engaged but Charity was forced to leave Vanessa waiting when son Ryan disappeared, so Vanity never tied the knot.

Despite their ups and downs, Charity and Vanessa were meant to be. Until Charity snogged Mackenzie Boyd and destroyed everything.

A hurt Vanessa might have got over one kiss, but the web of lies Charity wove was too much and Vanessa left for some time apart.

Emmerdale devastated Charity and Mackenzie watch as Noah's charges are read out in court
Charity and Mack are trying to make a go of it (Credit: ITV)

Charity and Mackenzie Boyd

Despite being on and off more times than a tap, Charity and Mack are currently in a relationship.

When Vanessa returned to the village at Christmas 2021, it was clear Charity was desperate to be with her. But Vanessa made it clear that wasn’t going to happen.

Mack saw the closeness between them, however, and left Charity.

But he came back and forgave her and now they are as happy as Charity can ever be in a relationship.

Except she’s just discovered she’s pregnant and is once again thinking of not keeping it…

Charity had Debbie when she was just 13 (Credit: ITV/Shutterstock)

Who are Charity Dingle in Emmerdale’s children?

When Charity was 13 she slept with cousin Cain and later gave birth to a daughter who she gave up for adoption. After she came to Emmerdale, she and Cain were reunited with their daughter, Debbie.

Charity also has a teenage son, Noah, whose father is Chris Tate, and another boy called Moses, whose dad is troubled Ross Barton. She’s also the adoptive parent of Vanessa’s son, Johnny, though that seems to have been largely forgotten about since Vanessa returned to the soap…

In 2018, Charity found out that the son she’d had when she was a teenager was alive and not dead as she’d thought. She was reunited with Ryan.

Charity faced her abuser in court (Credit: ITV)

Charity v DI Bails

In some of Emmerdale’s most harrowing and gripping scenes, in 2018 Charity bravely faced her abuser and dodgy police officer DI Mark Bails in court.

In flashback scenes, viewers learned Charity was kept prisoner by Bails and abused by him and his friends. And Charity was relieved when Bails was sent to prison.

She has managed to forge a great relationship with the product of her torment, Ryan. Together they own the Woolpack.

Emmerdale Charity looks angry with Amelia outside the abortion clinic
Charity was supportive to Amelia, but had her own surprise (Credit: ITV)

Will Charity keep her baby?

So as Charity finds herself pregnant with baby number five, what is she going to do?

She was heading to get an abortion when she bumped into Amelia at the clinic. Forgetting her own appointment, she supported Amelia.

But Charity later phoned back to make another appointment.

Emma Atkins, who plays Charity has explained Charity doesn’t want another baby because she thinks: “there would be a lot of skepticism and judgement” of her.

“She’s not been the most successful of mothers, motherhood has been a struggle for her, she’s not maternal.”

What will she doe next?

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Kerry Barrett
Freelance Soap Writer