Laura Norton revealed how a secret from her past could come back to haunt her in Emmerdale

Emmerdale has teased a lot of drama as the show welcomed 2025, including teenager April going missing on Christmas Day and Anthony’s abusive history coming back to haunt him. In upcoming episodes, actress Laura Norton has confirmed that there will be “terrible decisions” made by one character in an arson plotline.

Actress Laura Norton joined the ITV soap in 2012 and took on the role of Kerry Wyatt. Her character left the Dales in 2022 to work on a cruise ship after struggling to cope the death of her partner Al Chapman. In real life, Laura took the 16-month absence for maternity leave.

She joined the soap as the estranged mother of Amy Wyatt who was later adopted by by Val and Eric Pollard. The couple also took Kerry under their wing and Laura shared “Pollard (Eric) has a soft spot” for Kerry and that they’re both “loveable rogues in different ways.”

Pollard destroyed his most recent relationship with Brenda Walker after draining her life savings on a failed crypto venture. After realising he has no money to pay her back, he sees that the only way forward is to sell the shop but it appears no one is willing to buy it for the price he needs to sell it at.

Kerry manages to coax it out of Pollard that he feels as though he’s failed Brenda because he hasn’t paid her back. While Kerry tries to assure him that Brenda would be happy to wait for her money instead of Pollard pushing himself too far, she’s still oblivious to how far he is willing to go.

Later in the week, Kerry sees matches and accelerants as Pollard admits he’s going to burn down the shop for the insurance claim to repay Brenda. Kerry argues that arson is not a victimless crime, but can she find a way to convince him not to go through with it?

Kerry and Amy were the cause of the accidental fire at the sweet factory while they damaged the CCTV equipment. Unfortunately for the pair, Frank Clayton died in the fire as he tried to rescue his daughter Tracy from the flames. Laura admitted that Kerry is “riddled with guilt and regret” but that “it’s nice for fans to talk about it as a sense of closure.” She continued: “The fans don’t forget. They’re very loyal, they watch the show and pay attention to the stories.”

When it comes to Pollard, Laura expressed: “He means so much to Kerry and Amy, he’s like her he makes some terrible, terrible decisions. She’s shocked and sad to see that he must be feeling really desperate. She gets very protective because she’s experienced something very similar. A series of bad choices led to an accident that was related to a fire. It’s haunted her ever since and she doesn’t want to find him in the same situation.”

However, with her confessing such a major secret from her past, will it come back to haunt her and backfire? Particularly as she’s not the only Emmerdale character involved in the buried truth.

Speaking about Kerry’s relationship with Pollard, Laura shared: “It’s lovely to go full circle with him. I love working with Chris. They’ve (Kerry and Pollard) both got no filter so they say ridiculous things to each other.” She continued to describe it as a “father daughter relationship”, and that “you don’t expect these two to have the bond they they do, it’s nice to see on screen.”

Emmerdale airs on weekdays at 7:30pm on ITV1 and is available to stream on ITVX.