Emmerdale’s Isabel Hodgins confirms return two months after exit

The actress filmed her final scenes last December, but they aired on screen in February

Emmerdale star Isabel Hodgins has confirmed when she’ll be returning to the ITV soap, two months after her on-screen exit aired.

Actress Isabel Hodgins played the iconic role of Victoria Sugden for 20 years before departing earlier this year to go on maternity leave.

As part of one of the original Emmerdale families, Victoria of course had many major storylines over the years. For Isabel, some of her most recent ones saw her kill John Sugden in self-defence after he returned to the Dales for her and son Harry.

It was the aftermath of this particular storyline that led to Victoria’s exit earlier this year. After learning that Joe Tate had filmed the incident and was using it to blackmail Robert Sugden into plating evidence in Moira Dingle’s home, Victoria decided she needed a break from the village.

Ready for a fresh start, her and Harry left for Portugal to stay with Diane Sugden for a while. In real life, of course, Isabel was on maternity leave as she awaited to welcome her first child with husband Adam Whitehead.

In a video showing Isabel in labour with their daughter she penned: “On the 11th of February at 1:02am… Georgie Grace Whitehead. 11.02.26. 8lbs5oz [heart emojis],” the message across the video read.

The post then cut to the sound of Georgie crying and an image of Isabel holding her baby girl in her arms, with the post captioned: “And then we heard you.”

Isabel has been keeping her followers up to date with “mum life” regularly on social media, but that hasn’t stopped fans who are eager to know when she’ll return to the Dales.

On a recent TikTok video, Isabel posted herself and Adam doing a TikTok dance when in the comments she was asked when she’ll be returning to Emmerdale. She responded: “later this year x”, as well as liking another comment asking if she’ll be back.

Touching on her exit, Isabel previously shared: “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!

“I live in Manchester and I’ve been driving over to Leeds to film. By the end, I felt exhausted and I knew it was time to have a rest before the baby arrives.”