Emmerdale drops a bombshell over Debbie Dingle in tonight’s episode – she’s now living on the other side of the world.

Sarah Sugden hears the unexpected news as she tries reaching out to her absent mum for support.

Worried about her future after being told that she could have cervical cancer, Sarah phones Debbie for a heart-to-heart.

Fans know that Debbie has spent the past few years living in Scotland, with the Dingles often paying visits to her off-camera.

In a new scene tonight, which we only see from Sarah’s point of view, the teen intends to tell Debbie about her health concerns in a phone chat. Sadly, she doesn’t get a chance to, as Debbie wants to share her own big news first.

An emotional Sarah then heads to see her gran Charity Dingle at The Woolpack, declaring that Debbie has “gone”. More specifically, the elusive Dingle has emigrated to Australia after secretly marrying her current partner Chris.

In a subsequent scene, Charity asks: “So she’s actually there? In Australia? Now?”

Sarah replies: “Yeah, they got there this morning. They’d just landed when I rang. And there’s more – her and Chris got married three weeks ago.”

The revelations shock Charity, who brands Debbie a “little cow” for keeping quiet during the months of planning and paperwork that would have preceded her life-changing move.

It seems that Debbie is keen to put as much distance as possible between herself and her old life in the village – including the other Dingles.

This ties in with Debbie’s notable absence during Zak’s funeral in October last year, when she was “too upset” to attend.

The scenes appear to rule out any involvement from Debbie in Sarah’s big new story, which will play out over the coming weeks and months.

In real life, Charley Webb – who played Debbie – left the Emmerdale regular cast in 2019.

She returned for a guest stint in 2020 and 2021 but hasn’t featured in the show since.