Mandy Dingle (Lisa Riley) has been hiding her guilty secret well of being a Financial Dominatrix – where she receives large sums of money from submissive men online – along with her enormous debts. But when the secret comes out on the day of her Emmerdale wedding, all hell breaks loose.
Mandy confessed to new pal Rhona Goskirk (Zoe Henry) in the Woolpack toilets that she is thousands of pounds in debt and is opting for a small wedding to ensure she can cope financially.
After a conversation with Gail, who suggested she get paid for her innate bossy nature, Mandy decides to become a financial dominatrix, or Findom, and starts accepting large amounts of cash from strange men in the guise of her new persona of Madamme Diamante Dales.
Tracy Shankley (Amy Walsh) disproves of this plan from the outset and is horrified to walk in on Mandy with a client. Tracy is concerned for her friend, but Mandy assures her she’s being safe.
Mandy is overjoyed when Amelia Spencer (Daisy Campbell) tells her she’s throwing her a hen do, but this puts her in a bit of a spin as she’s then forced to juggle Bear’s (Joshua Richards) salon appointment with a client before heading to the hen. She asks Amelia to see to Bear’s beard trim, but he’s left stunned when alone in the salon to hear Mandy mid-Findom call.
The cat’s out of the bag and Bear sees it as total and utter betrayal of his son Paddy Kirk (Dominic Brunt), and wrestles with himself over whether he should come clean. He goes away and researches financial domination and is horrified at what he sees.
He confronts Mandy, who tries to explain her actions, but Bear is too enraged to hear her justifications. In the name of protecting his son, Bear pulls a terrible stunt – he secretly signs up as Mandy’s next client.
Confronting her, but without revealing what he’s done, he gives her an ultimatum; tell Paddy or Bear will. She promises to quit instead, and Paddy never has to know, but when he learns that Mandy hasn’t packed it in at all, he comes good on his promise.
Actress Lisa tells Metro.co.uk: ‘She’s like, “Just one more client. Just one more.” It’s not like a tenner, it’s £400 for 20 minutes. She’s a Dingle, isn’t she? It sets up a good twist for the wedding.’
That decision could be fatal for their relationship. Paddy is blindsided and now left to decide whether to go ahead with the wedding.
Paddy makes the heartbreaking decision that he doesn’t want to marry Mandy anymore – but Mandy doesn’t even know that Bear has spilled the beans.
Now here’s the twist, it’s not for the reason we think.
Dominic Brunt reveals: ‘I like the story for that because it looks like he’s going to go mad for what she’s doing, but then he says, “You can do that. It isn’t that. You have to tell me and include me and don’t lie.”’
As Mandy gets ready on the morning of her wedding, Bear takes it upon himself to stomp over to the salon to reveal he was Mandy’s secret client, and that Paddy knows everything. Mandy realises what this means – her wedding is off.
Can she convince Paddy that she did it all for the greater good?
