Emmerdale viewers are certain Zak Dingle has a love child with a fellow Dales legend - and they are already in the village.
Soap legend Zak sadly died on the soap recently - with his funeral taking place this week. In real life, actor Steve Halliwell passed away in December last year, aged 77.
Due to Zak’s death, soap bosses have written in a death storyline. Over in the Dales, Zak has been mentioned in recent months as he is living away in Scotland with granddaughter Debbie (Charley Webb).
However, this week, the famous village learned that Zak had sadly died. During Monday’s episode (October 14) Moira (Natalie J. Robb) told her husband Cain (Jeff Hordley) about his father’s passing.
Cain then headed around the village to inform people about Zak’s death. In emotional scenes, accompanied by piano music, Cain shared the news with Charity (Emma Atkins), Chas (Lucy Pargeter), Marlon (Mark Charnock), and Mandy, played by Lisa Riley.
What’s more, the news of Zak’s passing hit Kim Tate (Claire King) hard too, and she was left in floods of tears over his death. The sad news was even enough to momentarily end her feud with her estranged husband Will Taylor (Dean Andrews).
She emotionally recalled: “Zak knew exactly what was important in life. Family, they came first and they came last. He put family above anything."
However, fans are now thinking that something previously went down between Kim and Zak as they suspect a romance or even a shock love child. What’s more, fans have even predicted that Zak’s secret love child with a Dales icon could even be in the village already.
One person said on an Emmerdale Facebook fan page: “Why is Kim so upset about the passing of Zak?” Some else replied: “Because Zac had time for Kim they understood each other.”
While a third put forward the theory of a secret love child and said: “What if all along Kim had a secret child with Zak that he knew nothing about. Kim gave the kid up for adoption and she arrives in the village at Christmas….”
Other fans seemed to agree with that theory, as another person said: “Now this would be a twist!” A fifth person pointed out how the child could actually be newcomer Ella Forster (Paula Lane).
“I think the secret child could be Ella,” mused a person in the comments section. Another agreed: “Could be, we don’t actually know that much about her past (apart from her being a child killer).”
Emmerdale airs weeknights on ITV1 and ITVX at 7.30pm
