Emmerdale fans have sparked speculation that a long-missing member of the Tate family could be returning to the village after a mention of New Zealand in a recent episode.
During a confrontation between Joe Tate (Ned Porteous) and Caleb Miligan (William Ash), Caleb made a comment about New Zealand. Fans quickly connected this to Jean Tate, the daughter of Zoe Tate (Leah Bracknell), who has not been seen since she was a baby and is believed to live in New Zealand.
Fan account @TheTateDynasty tweeted: ‘”Try New Zealand?” Caleb…do you know who lives in New Zealand?’ @dbella91 replied: ‘Is this a nod to Jean ??? Hope she’s coming back to dales’, later adding: ‘They’ve said another Tate is coming, they are taking along time to announce who it is lol’
Producer hints at new arrivals
The speculation follows comments from Emmerdale producer Laura Shaw, who previously stated her intention to strengthen the Tate family. 'About building the clans, I’ve been trying to do the same with the Sugdens as well as the Tates. There’s going to be a couple of arrivals to strengthen both the Tate and Sugden clans,' she confirmed.
Speaking of Kim and Joe, she added: '…really cement Kim and Joe as surrogate mother and son, which was important to me, to try to build that family of Tates up at Home Farm. Similarly, we brought Dawn and the kids in to bolster it. Then we were missing the dad of the family, so we went mad and brought Graham back!'
Jean Tate's history
Jean was named after her late grandmother and was initially put up for adoption by Zoe, but Zoe changed her mind and returned to the village with her daughter. Zoe was suffering a schizophrenic episode when she fell pregnant, and later learned that Jean's father was Scott Windsor (Ben Freeman). After a custody battle and a mental health relapse, Zoe took Jean abroad for a fresh start. Now, 21 years later, fans wonder if Jean might return to Home Farm.
