Emmerdale star Zoe Henry has revealed the twist in the Rhona embryo storyline that left her shocked.
The plotline has seen Rhona’s ex-husband Gus Malcolms use their frozen embryos without her permission, with Gus’s legal fate revealed next week in court.
As part of the storyline, baby Ivy was born to Gus and his then-wife Lucy through Rhona’s embryos, though in a tragic twist, Lucy died during Ivy’s birth last year.
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Opening up about initially learning about the storyline, Zoe said that Lucy’s death twist took her by surprise.
“I didn’t know that Gus’ wife Lucy was going to die. That shocked me as well, that was a big one,” she recalled to Digital Spy and other media.
“I thought that perhaps we’d work our way to co-parent and that might bring Alan [McKenna, who plays Gus] into the show or whatever, but no, we had absolutely no idea, and I’m not sure they didn’t, actually, when they started.”
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Zoe further shared that she wasn’t aware that the story would culminate in the big court case.
“Particularly reading the court stuff when we got it through, myself and Mark [Charnock, who plays Marlon] were both like, ‘Oh my god’, particularly the twist at the end, I was like ‘Oh god, I didn’t see that coming’ but in a brilliant way. I don’t think we could’ve imagined,” the star said.
She continued: “This has never been done before and there are so many legal loopholes and ways you could go with this, but they had to tell it truthfully, and so they’ve had a team of people that they’ve been going back to, saying ‘What about this? What about that?’ It’s been fascinating, really.”
Speaking about taking on the complicated issue with the plotline, Zoe explained that there is “nothing straightforward about it”.
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“I hadn’t realised the legalities of how it is Rhona’s egg that helps to create the embryo but she has no legal rights because she hasn’t birthed it,” she said, revealing that he saw on social media that some people weren’t being “very nice” about Rhona.
“It’s fine that people aren’t happy with her and I’m not judging that, but what I’m saying is, it’s complex and I get it and people go, ‘Well, it’s his baby’, and I think actually that’s probably the root of it.
“I’ve said this so many times, nobody’s right and nobody’s wrong. He shouldn’t have stolen the embryos and forged the signature but at the end of the day they are both parents, Marlon included. They’re all involved. It’s very complex.”
Emmerdale airs on weeknights at 7.30pm on ITV1, and streams on ITVX.
