Joe Tate’s (Ned Porteous) is facing a new world he could never have imagined in Emmerdale – Dawn (Oliva Bromley) dead and becoming a single parent to a newborn son.

Joe seemed to have turned a corner of late, putting his bad lad days behind him (to a degree) to focus on being a better man for his future wife Dawn. Dawn, meanwhile, had been convinced that Joe had walloped Billy (Jay Kontzle) over the head and left him for dead, leaving Dawn sick to the stomach and desperate to escape.

Billy, along with Caleb (Will Ash) concocted a plan to get Dawn out of there, with the added bonus for Caleb that Joe’s life would be destroyed in the process.

Joe discovered this plan on what would have been his wedding day, when Caleb gleefully revealed Dawn had done a bunk.

Joe left to mope in what would have been their wedding marquee, pondering how his life had been about to be changed for the better but had been ripped away. He was surprised to be joined by Dawn, who had seen the light – and the truth – and had run back to beg for forgiveness.

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But just as she asked if he would still marry her, they were both hit by Jimmy’s (Nick Miles) runaway car as it crashed through the tent.

Dawn’s injuries were so severe she died shortly after, but her baby survived and was placed in the NICU. Joe had been so close to the happily ever after he’d dreamed of, the family he’d always wanted. Now he’s without the love of his life and a has a baby he has no idea how to care for.

Actor Ned Porteous gave his take: ‘There’s one thing usually that he holds closest to his heart. The one thing that you can’t buy, the one thing that is inaccessible through purchase, and that’s—that’s love and being taken care of, and it’s family. It’s the things that he holds really dear.

‘And if you were to take that from a man who is outwardly volatile and dangerous as is, unable to regulate his emotions, if you were to take the final thing tethering him to a life of moral good, what could that man then be capable of?’

So, there’s a clue that Joe is likely to do something terrible as he navigates this loss. He’s consumed with grief and visits his newborn son in the NICU with Kim. He holds the tiny tot’s hand through the incubator.

Kim looks on, hopeful Joe will find a way through and that this is his first step into the role of dad.

But instead, Joe makes a shocking decision about his son’s future. Will he decide he can’t be the one to raise him?


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