Few stories have more twists and turns than Sarah Sugden’s ‘Who’s the Daddy?’ surrogacy story in Emmerdale. If you’re wondering how it all ends, you’re not alone. Actress Katie Hill, who portrays Sarah, admits that even she doesn’t know!

‘I can’t wait to find out where it goes.’ Katie admits. ‘None of us know yet. For all I know at the moment, it’s coming along, and it’s all going to go smooth sailing for a little bit, but you never know what’s around the corner.’

The Sugden surrogacy saga first began when Sarah and her husband Jacob Sugden (Joe-Warren Plant) discovered they were tragically unable to conceive, due to Sarah undergoing an emergency hysterectomy following complications from surgery for cervical cancer.

With their dreams of parenthood crumbling before their eyes, grandmother Charity Dingle (Emma Atkins) nobly volunteered to be their surrogate.

Then she went and ruined it by having a one-night stand with Dales bad boy Ross Barton (Michael Parr).

Cue months of Charity walking a constant tightrope of lies, acting like she was definitely, absolutely one-hundred percent carrying Sarah and Jacob’s baby while lying like crazy to her husband Mackenzie Boyd (Lawrence Robb).

The truth came out during the Corriedale crash. Well, half of it did. While Mackenzie was rocked to discover that Charity’s baby was not Sarah and Jacob’s, he did not get as far as finding out about his wife’s infidelity. Their marriage has been damaged by Charity’s secret, but they remain together – for now.

As for Sarah, she remains in blissful ignorance. But for how long? Surely once the cat is out of the bag, there’s no repairing the relationship between these two. Katie Hill seems to agree – and she she can’t wait to get stuck into it.

‘I can’t wait to get that script where it does come out and I can see what way it goes. I’m also not looking forward to it at the same time, because I love working with Emma, and obviously that probably means, once she finds out, there’s no way that we’re going to carry on doing all these nice scenes together, so I think that’ll be hard.’

But Sarah’s got a lot more on her plate than just the surrogacy drama.

Recent episodes have seen her become a shoulder to cry on for her granddad Cain Dingle (Jeff Hordley), who is reeling from his prostate cancer diagnosis. Not just that, but his wife Moira Barton (Natalie J Robb) is in prison for people trafficking and murder thanks to being framed by Joe Tate (Ned Porteous), who has his sights set on Butler’s Farm. So Sarah decides to help Cain with an unusual business proposal – nicking fancy cars.

‘He’s struggling with the farm.’ Katie explains. ‘He also finds out that he’s not got life insurance. So as soon as we had this scene that we filmed where Sarah finds out about that, and that’s what makes her go, oh, well, “you’re a Dingle”. I’m a Dingle. I’ve not done any of these stealing cars yet, so he shows me the way. And that’s kind of how this comes about.

But what starts as a Dingle money making venture, soon turns into something more dangerous as Sarah starts to enjoy the rush of stealing cars. Katie explains what drives her character’s descent into crime.

‘I think, after the first one, Sarah sort of has a taste for what it’s like and the adrenaline and how she really enjoys doing that with him. So she definitely wants to help him out with money. And also a distraction from his diagnosis.’

‘She knows that it’s not healthy to just sit at home and be sad about it, so there’s that. But then also, she is a Dingle at the end of the day, so she’s definitely getting enjoyment from it, as well as trying to help him.’

But Sarah’s Grand Theft Auto spree is sure to end in tears – especially when she tries to steal a flashy car belonging to her husband’s boss. Obviously, when Jacob catches her red-handed he’s none too pleased that his wife put his career at risk. Why didn’t she confide in him? Katie has the answers.

‘Deep down she wishes she could tell him, but she has that loyalty to her grandad. They have such an amazing relationship, he doesn’t want to jeopardise that. Right now she’s sticking by ‘Grumpy’, and she’s doing what he wants to do, but inside – 100% – she wants to tell Jacob, because it is affecting their relationship.

With a baby on the way, they can’t be in this position where they’re keeping big secrets from each other.’

The life of Sarah Sugden certainly isn’t lacking excitement at the moment. What next? Once Charity’s surrogacy secret finally explodes, Katie hopes for a little bit of peace for her character.

‘I just want to be happy for a little bit. Obviously it’s evident at the end of the day, it will come out about the baby eventually. But I think it would be nice that once Charity does give birth and the baby comes along, that they have just a little time of happiness between them in their little baby bubble. I think that would be really nice.’