Emmerdale's Mark Charnock reveals 'massive issues' ahead for Marlon as April faces new struggle

Emmerdale star Mark Charnock has opened up about April Windsor's devastating special, which revealed what happened to the teen when she ran away from home, and how the aftermath is set to pose new challenges for the family. Earlier this week, Emmerdale fans discovered that April ran away from home after becoming pregnant and found herself sleeping rough before giving birth to her stillborn baby in a gym bathroom. In Thursday's episode, April was finally reunited with her father Marlon, with the 15-year-old opening up about what happened to her away from home.

While April (played by Amelia Flanagan) has now returned home, the trauma of her fleeing home and losing her baby is set to haunt the family for a long time, star Mark Charnock has revealed. Speaking to The Mirror in an exclusive chat, Mark - who plays Marlon on the ITV soap - shared that there are "massive issues" ahead for the Dingle-Windsor family. "I think what's important about this storyline, there's the story of the search for the missing child and then there's the pivot where she comes back, but then the whole of the story, the much longer psychological trauma that it's going to inflict on the family," he said.

"The fear of losing her again, the shock of having her back, but having a different human being back given what she's already been through. I think this is what's important about the telling of this story is that it's not easily resolved. There are going to be massive issues going forward.". Mark added that Marlon is terrified of losing April again. "From his point of view, there'll be massive anxieties about losing her again. It was that easy that she went in the first place and it could be it could just as easily lose her again," he said.

Meanwhile, for April, she's been forced to grow up very quickly after losing her baby. "From her point of view, it's fitting back in given that she's seen the world for what it. She's no longer in the cocoon of her safe village," Mark added. "She's been in the big city and seen everything that life can throw at you. So we're getting back this adult but we've not seen her go from being a kid to an adult. She's just come back as an adult with experiences that we can't possibly relate to. So I think it's fascinating and that angle of it.".

Speaking about what's to come on the soap, Mark shared that Marlon won't always make the best choices in dealing with April. "It's a really weird mixture of wanting to wrap her in cotton but thinking, 'If we wrap her in cotton wool, that's overprotective and could drive her away.'. "Every choice you make, every tiny domestic twist and turn that you have to navigate, feels filled with the threat of losing her again. The oxygen of every moment is, 'Will she go again?' And so there are eggs shells everywhere and just tiptoeing around those is relentless, exhausting, and it drives Marlon to make choices and decisions that are probably the wrong ones, but they're well intentioned.".