Come on folks, soaps aren’t real. Okay?
This week fans of Emmerdale were up in arms when Robert Sugden cheated on his husband Aaron Dingle.
With a woman!
Viewers couldn’t believe what they were seeing when they saw Robert get up close and personal with Rebecca White while Aaron was banged up in prison.
Furious fans slammed the storyline, saying it was “playing into the bisexual stereotype”.
“Thanks for making all bisexuals seem like cheaters. As a bisexual I am not a happy camper rn,” one angry fan wrote.
A second sensitive soul said: “can they STOP with the robert cheating storylines its pathetic and harmful bisexual representation that made me feel sick #emmerdale.”
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One of the show’s writers Joe Parkinson took to Twitter to defend the scenes in a series of messages, saying Robert’s sexuality was “irrelevant” to what he was getting up to.
“His bisexuality isn’t why he cheats,” he wrote. “It’s irrelevant. Cheating is in all soaps and isn’t dependent on their sexuality.
“Was the scene him saying, ‘I’m bi so must sleep with a woman’, or did he just sleep with an old flame who happens to be a woman? Judging anyone purely based on their sexuality is wrong and Robert is more than just his sexual orientation – as is everyone.”
But fans of the show weren’t having it and continued to attack and criticise.
One wrote: “Emmerdale basically ruined Roberts character development over the last year in two episodes.. well done. # Robron”
Another raged: “I hate emmerdale so much. they’re not taking this seriously. they have ruined my favourite character. and there’s no fixing it.”
Unable to appease the angry mob, Joe decided to delete his account.
An angry Danny Miller, who plays Aaron, felt compelled to remind over-enthusiastic viewers that it’s ‘just a soap’ as they kicked off about the storyline.
“I know it’s not going the way you’d imagined,” he wrote. “But it’s soap. There’s loads of twist & turns. The abusive accounts/tweets helps nothing!
“Your passion & love for the characters & the show, makes us want to push you away & pull you back in. Its a journey. Plenty more to come.”
Meanwhile, in spite of begging Rebecca not to tell Aaron about their kiss, Robert himself ended up confessing what he had done to his mother-in-law who was unsurprisingly furious.
The feisty Chas gave Robert a wallop across the chops and told him she had always known he was wrong for Aaron – then promptly kicked him out of the pub.
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“You are still the same pathetic, twisted little boy that you always were but you are very good at hiding it,” she said.