SUGDEN EXIT Emmerdale’s Isabel Hodgins reveals why she’s actually RELIEVED to be leaving soap after 20 years on screen
As Emmerdale actress Isabel Hodgins – known to millions as Victoria Sugden – prepares to become a mum for the first time in real life, she admits she was relieved when she filmed her dramatic leaving scenes airing on Thursday.
Like any new mum to be, Isabel – who has played Victoria for nearly 20 years after joining at the age of 12 – has been keen to rest as she awaits to give birth any day now.
And it’s not surprising she’s after some quiet time given the actress has been at the heart of some of Emmerdale’s most gripping plotlines recently.
Indeed, ever since the Corriedale special, her character has been wracked with guilt knowing she murdered her half-brother, John Sugden.
Even though a formal suicide verdict has now been delivered, Victoria knows deep down she killed him.
To make matters worse, Joe Tate has also been blackmailing both her and her other half-brother, Robert Sugden, as he has video footage confirming this.
Yet rather than giving the police the video, he has forced Victoria to persuade Moira, who is wrongly facing two murder charges, to sign the farm off to him.
And now faced with constant reminders in the Emmerdale village of the upset she has caused; Victoria starts to contemplate this week whether to start a new life afresh or hand herself in to the police and pay the consequences for what she did.