Laurel Thomas (Charlotte Bellamy) recently discovered that her husband, Jai Sharma (Chris Bisson), had been keeping all sorts of secrets in Emmerdale.

Viewers have known for a while about Jai’s brutal treatment of his biological father Amit (Anil Goutam). After Jai found out that Amit had been responsible for the death of Rishi Sharma (Bhasker Patel) – Amit’s brother and the man Jai grew up knowing as his dad – he took vengeance.

Pushing Amit down the stairs, causing him to have a broken leg, Jai keep him prisoner in fear and pain until Amit agreed to sign over his shares in HOP to Jai. This was callous enough but Amit undoubtedly deserved to suffer for what he’d done to Rishi.

Almost worse, in moral terms, was the fact that Jai pretended to his brother Suni (Brahmdeo Shannon Ramana) that Amit hadn’t left any of the shares to him, thus cheating the perfectly innocent Suni out of his inheritance.

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When Laurel found out about all of this she was understandably furious and shocked. After arguing with Jai and sending him away from the house, she suddenly fell ill and collapsed to the floor. Eventually she was found by Gabby (Rosie Bentham), in a bad way and struggling to breathe.

She had suffered a heart attack, possibly brought on at least in part by the stress of the situation with Jai. And in the aftermath, Laurel made a decision that her and Jai’s relationship was over.

The couple got married last year after being together on and off since 2019, but their wedding was overshadowed by Jai’s shock discovery that Rishi wasn’t his biological father and it was, in fact, Amit.

Laurel collapses as Gabby calls an ambulance in EastEnders

This caused a falling out between him and Rishi as Jai felt the truth had been kept from her all his life. On the wedding day, Rishi was on his way to the ceremony when he met his death by falling down the stairs, with Jai being the one to discover his body.

It later became clear that Amit had been in the house when the ‘accident’ happened and it was eventually revealed that it hadn’t been an accident at all. Amit had deliberately pushed Rishi so he could claim Rishi’s share of a legacy from their uncle.

In upcoming episodes, with Laurel still recovering in hospital, she’s not helped when it appears Jai hasn’t accepted her decision that they should split and is still hoping for a reconciliation.

Laurel is absolutely firm that she no longer wants to be with him, but is concerned that it doesn’t look like this has sunk in for him.

How will she get through to him without plac