Belle Dingle (Eden Taylor-Draper) left Jacob Gallagher’s (Joe-Warren Plant) mate feeling pretty foolish in tonight’s episode of Emmerdale as she made it clear a new boyfriend isn’t on her mind right now.
The beloved character spent this week sorting her divorce to Tom King (James Chase), who is in prison after abusing Belle for well over a year.
During her visit, Belle realised time behind bars had not changed Tom in the slightest. As she listened, Tom tried to spin the narrative and wondered if her Dingle family had pushed the idea of a divorce.
A strong-minded Belle told Tom that wasn’t the case. She said she was healing from her ordeal, and feels officially ending their marriage would be the cherry on top for her.
Standing up to Tom made Belle feel powerful. When she got home, Lydia (Karen Blick) asked her what she’d get up to next. She said she didn’t know, but that felt exciting to her, given she could quite literally do whatever she wanted after having her life controlled by Tom for so long.
In tonight’s episode, Belle joined Jacob, Noah (Jack Downham), and Sarah (Katie Hill) in The Hide for some food and drinks. The atmosphere was made a little tense though due to Rich, Jacob’s friend.
He had just confessed to hiding a bag of cocaine in Jacob’s bag, which was found by Leyla (Roxy Shahidi).
The awkwardness then continued when Rich then turned his attention to Belle. After consuming a few too many drinks, Rich’s awful attempt at flirting left Belle with no qualms about putting him in his place.
It’s clear a relationship really isn’t Belle’s main focus at the moment.
Following the abuse from Tom, it’s going to take her a little while to contemplate another romance so for now, she’s going to put her love and attention into other aspects of her life.
