Diane Sugden

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Diane Sugden
Emmerdale character

Played by	Elizabeth Estensen
Duration	1999-
Date of Birth	21st June 1947
Date of Death
Marital Status	Married
Occupation	Publican
Family	Bernice, Val, Paul, Jack, Gabby and Diane Jnr.

Diane Sugden (previously Blackstock, née Lambert) is a fictional character on the ITV soap opera Emmerdale. She is played by Elizabeth Estensen.

[edit] About Diane

Diane arrived as the mother of Bernice Blackstock and now co-owns the Woolpack pub. Diane is best friends with her co-worker Louise Appleton and is one of the few people that know Louise is a murderer. As a child, she had to look after her little sister Val after their mother died. Diane was married to Rodney Blackstock and they had Bernice, but Rodney left them following two extra-marital affairs (one with Val resulting in a child). Diane had a failed romance with Alan Turner. Jack Sugden had endured a tough time after discovering his wife Sarah had been cheating on him and Diane had given him a shoulder to cry on. The pair kissed in 2000 but decided to be just good friends. That changed when in 2001, Jack clearly needed her in his life - but Diane’s past was about to catch up with her. After going AWOL for 26 years, her ex-husband Rodney Blackstock turned up out of the blue causing big problems between Diane and Bernice. Although her daughter finally accepted Rodney into her life, Diane was more hesitant. But it was clear there was something still between the former spouses. This was confirmed when they shared a night together which Diane decided was the last time they will ever behave like a married couple. After a brief relationship with builder Mack, Diane fell back into the arms of Jack Sugden and they started to look seriously at a future together. But Diane was missing Bernice, who had moved to Brighton to start a new life, and decided to go and live with her. Desperate to get her to stay, Jack proposed - and at their engagement party, Diane’s estranged sister Val arrived. Val was born a few years after Diane, who brought her up after their mother died and the pair have never really seen eye-to-eye. Diane’s mistrust of Val is confirmed when it transpired that pretty much everything she says is a lie. Although it’s wildly inappropriate, Diane forgave Val when she started dating Rodney - and even gave them her blessing. But trouble was ahead. In 2004, Diane was horrified to discover she had colon cancer and runs away to Scarborough to try and digest the news. Rodney goes with her and Val immediately believes they’re having an affair. When the truth comes out, Rodney leaves Val and begs Diane to give their relationship another chance. She rejects him and starts planning her wedding to Jack. On their big day, Diane and Jack run the gauntlet of emotions when his daughter Victoria reveals that Diane has cancer in front of a shocked congregation. And to make matters worse, Val takes the opportunity to reveal that she had an affair with Rodney when he was married to Diane and that he is the father of her son Paul. Horrified by Val’s selfishness, Diane disowns her again and the only ray of light is when she’s given the all clear from cancer in early 2005. But if Diane thought Val had stooped low at her wedding, she was about to get a big shock. When her evil ex Jimmy Pepper came to Emmerdale to demand she paid him back a huge sum of money, Val stole the Woolpack’s takings. When Diane discovered her sister’s duplicity, she shopped her to the police and Val went to court. The sisters were at loggerheads again and even Diane felt she’d probably gone too far by reporting Val to the police… But there were bigger family problems around the corner for Diane. As the new matriarch of the Sugdens, Diane had to take on Jack and his children’s problems. When Andy fell out with his step-brother Daz, it was left to Jack and Diane to pick up the pieces. But after the stress of her cancer, Diane really didn’t have the stomach to take on a troubled teenager. Although she tried to be supportive, Diane had to put her foot down and insisted Daz must go back to Butler’s Farm. Although she felt desperately guilty about it Diane knew returning Daz to his brother was the right decision. But she was deeply distressed when Daz left the village for good to return to his mother. Now Diane is trying to cope with Victoria’s pre-teenage rebellion and trying to keep the Woolpack running smoothly. But she saw her life thrown into danger again when she was in the Kings River Showhome that exploded – Jack was at her beside himself with worry as she fought to stay alive. Luckily she made a full recovery.