Emmerdale fans were left emotional as one villager confirmed her exit plan after 20 years on the ITV soap

Emmerdale audiences were overcome with emotion as Victoria Sugden revealed her departure plans with Robert Sugden during her second-to-last episode.

Actress Isabel Hodgins first appeared on Emmerdale as Victoria Sugden in 2006, taking over from previous actress Hannah Midgley. Being part of one of the soap’s prominent families on ITV, Victoria has experienced numerous significant storylines throughout the past two decades.

Nevertheless,  Emmerdale enthusiasts must say goodbye to Victoria temporarily as Isabel prepares for maternity leave ahead of welcoming her first baby with husband Adam.

Isabel is believed to have recorded her final scenes in December, with Thursday (February 12) marking the actress’s departure for an extended period before her return, reports the Manchester Evening News.

Discussing her departure recently, Isabel revealed: “I thought I would be really emotional when I filmed my final scenes. Emmerdale is all I have ever known. But pregnancy does funny things to you, and the truth is I felt ready not to have to film on Emmerdale!”

Victoria visited Moira to get her to sign over the land to Joe Tate (Image: ITV)

Prior to her departure, Victoria was exposed as John Sugden’s killer after the villain’s comeback against Aaron Dingle, before the Corriedale chaos unfolded.

Following a lethal injection from murderous John (Oliver Farnworth), Victoria regained consciousness and hurried to the dramatic crash site searching for her brother. Upon confronting John once more, he pleaded with her to accompany him and begin afresh somewhere else with her son, Harry.

However, matters escalated physically, and Victoria ultimately injected John, who perished in the same manner as his victim, Nate Robinson (Jurell Carter). Since that moment, Victoria has been overwhelmed with remorse, and following Joe Tate’s (Ned Porteous) revelation that he possessed video evidence of the incident, she was prepared to surrender herself to authorities.

To shield his sister, Robert Sugden (Ryan Hawley) negotiated an arrangement with Joe whereby he consented to plant evidence at Moira Dingle’s property, resulting in her being falsely accused of the deaths of Celia Daniels (Jaye Griffiths) and Anya (Alia Al-Shabibi)

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Victoria Sugden was confirmed as John’s killer on Emmerdale (Image: ITV)

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Subsequently, Joe has insisted they sell their share of the farm and transfer partial ownership to the Tates. Following Graham Foster’s (Andrew Scarborough) persuasion of an emotional Victoria that departing the village might prove beneficial, she eventually implemented her strategy during Wednesday’s (February 11) episode.

Victoria visited Moira (Natalie J Robb) in prison and informed her that she was selling the land to Joe. Whilst devastated, Moira recognised it was the right decision and consented to proceed.

Victoria then revealed to Robert that she had arranged flights for herself and Harry to travel to Portugal and reside with Diane Sugden.

Despite Robert’s determined efforts to dissuade her, Victoria remained resolute that her departure was necessary and confirmed she’d be leaving the village the following day.

On X (formerly known as Twitter), one fan posted: “Just watched tonight’s #Emmerdale! Devastating scenes between Victoria and Moira in prison and I loved all the Tate scenes as well.”

As second commented: “Look we all know that Victoria can be a pain and always thinks the worst of Robert but I just wish this once #emmerdale could have written a nice ending for them. I’m sure they’ll hug it out tomorrow but there’s still an underlying resentment there which is sad”. While a third chimed in: “I lose Victoria Anne Sugden tomorrow”.