Emmerdale star Lucy Pargeter has opened up about the upset of working on Chas Dingle and Paddy Kirk’s (played by Dominic Brunt) baby loss storyline. The couple had a daughter called Grace in the ITV soap.
She died less than 30 minutes after being born having been diagnosed with a condition called Bilateral Renal Agenesis where the kidneys do not develop. Chas and Paddy knew she would not survive but that didn’t make the loss any easier to bear.
For Lucy, filming the scenes was especially emotional as she had just recently given birth herself to twin girls called Missy and Betsy, siblings for her older daughter Lola. During an appearance on This Morning, she admitted it was the “hardest” story she has ever done.
“I myself had just had the twins so I’d just had the blessing of these small children and then have to go through losing a child on screen. It was the first time that I think I’ve properly sobbed doing a storyline and not been able to stop when they said cut.
“That was a beautiful story to tell but it was one of the hardest that I’ve done I think,” she reflected in an interview with the show’s soap correspondent Sharon Marshall.
The heartbreaking scenes aired in 2018 and the storyline had huge repercussions for both Chas and Paddy.
There had been emotional scenes for months as throughout the pregnancy the couple had been preparing for the inevitable after learning their baby wouldn’t survive.
Yet for all the preparation in the world, the couple were still completely thrown by the reality of watching their little girl die within 30 minutes of being outside Chas’ womb.
However, in an attempt to salvage some good from the tragedy they decided to donate her organs ensuring that she would live on through others.
The child’s funeral saw the whole village turn up and was deeply distressing.
Following her death, the couple were torn apart as Paddy sunk into a deep depression.
Meanwhile, Chas eventually began an affair with Al Chapman (Michael Wildman) which ultimately devastated their relationship.
Paddy is now engaged to Mandy Dingle (Lisa Reilly) while Chas has recently undergone surgery for breast cancer.
Emmerdale is on ITV nightly at 7.30pm.