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A history of Emma and Ed: two decades of ups and downs

“I want us to get back together Ed, for keeps this time. That’s what I want most in the world.” Cue cheers from listeners as Ambridge receives some much-needed good news: after months of near misses, Emma and Ed are firmly back together where they belong.

In almost 20 years, they’ve never stopped loving one another, yet in the early days their relationship was on and off more than a light switch. Here’s how they got to where they are today...

While Emma and Ed have always had eyes for each other, it was his brother Will that she dated first.

In the beginning: Emma and Will

Yes, you read that correctly. While there’s always been chemistry between Emma and Ed, Emma’s first serious relationship was with his brother Will. Things were complicated from the start, however. After her first date with Will, Emma ended up accepting a lift home with Ed, who had stolen his brother’s car. The two were involved in a devastating accident which drove a wedge between the Grundy and Carter families and nearly cost Emma a limb. Despite some clandestine meetings in the hospital between Emma and Ed, she and Will started dating soon after the accident, much to Neil’s chargrin.

Emma’s eyes were turned by Ed again after he defended her during a mugging. She and Will were in the midst of a rocky patch, and she took the opportunity to call things off with Will and date Ed instead. Eventually she had to choose between the two, and while Ed declared that he’d always love her, she settled for his older brother. On Emma’s 19th birthday, Will proposed and the two set about planning their dream wedding.

Ed, Emma and Will (Oct 2005)

Ed and Emma plan to leave together - but Will has other ideas.

Who's the daddy?

In a controversial turn of events, Emma ended up in bed with Ed on the night of her hen party. To complicate matters further, she discovered she was pregnant shortly before the wedding, announcing the news to Will as they waited to go into the church. Ed proved to be a lifeline during Emma’s pregnancy with baby George and the two remained close. A year after the wedding, Emma felt stifled in her marriage and made plans to run away with Ed. During one of the many fights between the brothers, Will was told he wasn’t George’s father. This was disproved by a DNA test, but things between Emma and Will were irreparable and he filed for divorce. Emma had to relent to Will’s wishes for contact with their son, and Ed found himself pushed away. He vanished for two months, descending into heavy drinking and drug use, but with the help of Oliver and Fallon, he cleaned up and poured his energy into work.
The following year, Will met his future wife Nic. Ed started to see Fallon as more than his best mate, and the two of them started dating too. This was a less successful pairing and Ed, following his heart, reunited again with Emma.

Wedding number two

Together, Ed and Emma had a daughter called Keira and their strong family unit weathered house moves and money troubles. Finally, more than a decade after realising their feelings for one another, Emma proposed to Ed. Though it wouldn’t have mattered if Emma had ended up in bed with Ed this time round, her hen party was a much more staid affair: the night before her wedding she held a sewing bee at her mum’s house to make wedding decorations. This time, she’d picked the right brother.

Breaking point

After surviving the testing experience of living with each of their parents, Emma and Ed decided that it was time to buy a place of their own. While Emma worked three jobs in an attempt to save up for a deposit, Ed took on some very lucrative but not entirely legitimate work transporting pesticide for a man called Tim Oatey. When his dodgy side hustle was found out, Ed was immediately fired from his farm work. Overnight, Ed lost his main source of income and with it the couple’s prospects of home ownership.

Emma clubbed together as much money as she could, but it wasn’t enough. They rowed furiously and Ed ended their relationship, fearing he would never earn enough money to give Emma true happiness and the lifestyle she wanted. Ed stayed on at Grange Farm and Emma moved into her parents’ house with the children.

Will, now a widower after Nic’s tragic death, was struggling with the fracturing of his own family and supported the newly single Emma. After a cosy evening reminiscing about old times, he tried to make a move on her with disastrous consequences when Emma hit him with some home truths. Will sunk into a deep depression, and while Emma and Ed worked together to pull him back from the brink, it wasn’t enough for them to rescue their own relationship.

When Emma held a sale to get rid of all the belongings she’d acquired to kit out their new house, Ed secretly bought all of the furniture and stored it away. He wanted to keep it safe, should Emma find herself a home of her own in future.

Together again?

That day came sooner than Ed anticipated. After witnessing a traumatic explosion, Emma resolutely decided that she should live her life to the full. Emma had already broached the subject of divorce, and with Ed’s consent she withdrew a large sum of money from their joint account so that she and the children could move out of Ambridge View to pursue a new life. What Ed didn’t know was that this new life would involve him, too. After a day spent running spurious errands for his family, he returned home to discover a mobile home had been set up in the yard of Grange Farm. Ed was taken aback to discover Emma inside; this was her new family home. Ed didn’t need to be asked twice to move in (well, he did, but only because they were crying so much). And so it was that Ed and Emma discovered that anywhere could be home if they had each other. Instead of filing for divorce, they reunited in time to spend their fifth wedding anniversary together. Pass the tissues.

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