Rishi decides it’s time (Picture: ITV)
Jai Sharma (Chris Bisson) recently made a discovery that altered his entire life in Emmerdale. As he was sorting through some family papers to find his divorce certificate, he found a document which showed that he wasn’t the biological son of Rishi Sharma (Bhasker Patel), but had been adopted.
The most shocking part of this discovery for Jai was knowing that Rishi had kept all of this a secret from him for so many years. As he confronted his father with what he’d discovered he initially met a wall of silence as Rishi refused to talk about it.
Eventually he told Jai that his mum, Georgia (Lin Blakley), had been pregnant when they met. Jai’s biological father wasn’t in the picture, and Rishi was happy to take the baby on and bring him up as his own son when he and Georgia married. In fact he said he’d been delighted about his new little family.
Bhasker Patel told us that over the years Rishi had probably over-compensated by spoiling Jai.
‘Of course he loves his son dearly,’ he asserted. ‘In fact I think he pampered Jai a lot because indirectly he felt that Nikhil (Rik Makarem) and Priya (Fiona Wade), they’re his but Jai isn’t so of course you overdo it. But also him being the eldest as well. Giving him the house and the factory and the business, everything. Making him in charge, giving him power, basically.’
What Rishi hasn’t done so far is answer the one question that Jai is desperate to know the answer to: since Rishi isn’t his father, who is?
With Jai and Laurel (Charlotte Bellamy)’s wedding coming up, Laurel is keen for Jai and Rishi to make amends so Rishi can come to the wedding. She urges Jai to invite Rishi, which he does but with as little grace as possible.
How will this change things? (Picture: ITV)
Manpreet (Rebecca Sarker), who is the only other person apart from Rishi and Georgia who knows the full story of Jai’s parentage, tries to cheer up a despondent Rishi by telling him that he’s been a great dad to Jai all of his life. But she insists that he needs to tell Jai the full truth if they’re ever going to move forward.
‘Rishi hasn’t helped the situation,’ Bhasker told us. ‘He hasn’t. I think he should have brought Georgia in long ago. Rishi had a couple of heart problems as well so he should have opened up. He should have said, “Look, before anything happens to me I just want you to know that you are not my son but I’ve adopted you, etcetera.”’
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He told us that Rishi does finally tell Jai the whole story and hopes that they can mend their relationship.
‘After Georgia turning up and Rishi finally admitting the truth, I think he thinks they have united,’ he revealed. ‘Finally telling him the truth and he was honest about the whole thing. Time will heal, I think, that’s Rishi’s philosophy.’
How will Jai react when he hears the full truth?
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How will Jai react when he hears the full truth?
