Emmerdale spoilers: Another massive bombshell for struggling Charity Dingle as she discovers family secret

Charity Dingle (Emma Atkins) was knocked for six in Friday’s (January 5) episode of Emmerdale as she finally met Oscar, her grandson.

A few months ago, Ryan (James Moore) and Gail (Rachael Gill-Davis) met their son again after many years. We learnt that Ryan and Gail became parents when they were very young, and concluded putting Oscar up for adoption would be best so someone else could give him a better life.

Sophie (Martha Cope), Oscar’s adoptive mother, got in contact with Gail because she needed her help. She explained that Oscar was unwell and need a transplant for his hospital treatment, and wanted to see if Gail or Ryan would be a match.

It was an emotional and complex ordeal for the couple, and throughout the entire time, they never told Charity.

Charity discovered Ryan and Gail’s secret

In tonight’s episode, Charity met Oscar when she caught him trying to steal out of the shop van. At the time, Charity had no idea of the connection, but was given the truth when Gail arrived at the pub and saw her and Oscar communicating.

Gail confirmed that Oscar is her son, leaving the young lad to reveal to Charity that he’s her grandson.

Understandably, the news completely threw her. During a confrontation in the pub back room, Charity pointed out that she had only known Ryan for around five years, and wondered why he had failed to mention he has a child.

Gail stood by her and Ryan’s decision to keep quiet and said they were planning on getting round to telling her, but didn’t want to add to Charity’s stresses after the car crash in October.

Charity was emotional and hurt. She tried to highlight that Ryan has had plenty of opportunities to tell her, but an angry Gail responded and said Charity is an attention seeker and failing to think about the difficult event her and Ryan have been through.

That evening, as Gail and Ryan wondered where Charity had gone, we saw her outside burning a newspaper.

While Gail and Ryan reflected on Charity being strong and supposedly ‘made of concrete’, the beloved character was watching the paper turn to ash, with an article on the front being from Damon Harris’ mum.

During a showdown at the end of 2023, Damon was killed by Charity during an attempt at protecting Mackenzie (Lawrence Robb).

Ever since, Charity has given the impression she is coping with everything that happened – but tonight’s revelation about Oscar and the emotions it brought up certainly confirmed that Charity is struggling a lot more than she’s letting on.