After much speculation, Emmerdale boss Sophie Roper has confirmed that Ella Forster (Paula Lane) will return to the eponymous village following her big storyline.

Ella rocked up in the Dales earlier this year and it didn’t take fans long to work out that she was harbouring a big secret, with viewers wasting little time in trying to guess what it is.

With theories aplenty, many of which speculated that she was a friend of Meena Jutla’s (Paige Sandhu), audiences were eager to find out what Ella was hiding, with the truth finally coming to light in May.

Ella killed her best friend when she was 11 years old and subsequently went to prison. In the years since she had moved from place to place, always having to move on when someone inevitably found out about her past.

Liam Cavanagh (Jonny McPherson) – who was in a relationship with Ella at the time – was appalled to discover the truth, particularly given that he knows what it’s like to lose a child after Meena murdered his beloved Leanna (Mimi Slinger).

The village GP put Ella in her car and ordered her to leave the village once and for all, leaving fans curious to know if this was the last we’d see of Ella.

If you’ve been eager to know such a thing yourself then you’re in luck as new Emmerdale boss Sophie Roper has the answers, confirming that Ella will be back.

‘Ella will continue in the show, but her past will continue to haunt her,’ she said, branding the character’s introductory story as ‘powerful.’

‘Her relationship with Liam will remain complicated and we’ll continue to question whether she’ll ever get her happily ever after and can she ever really escape the past that’s led her to this point.’

The question is: just how will Liam cope with Ella back in the village? Can he ever get over what she did? Is there any hope of a future for them?