5 reasons Paddy and Mandy’s marriage is already doomed

Mandy Dingle in Emmerdale is hiding a big secret from fiancé Paddy Kirk: she is in mountains of debt and she can’t afford to pay for their wedding.

Building a relationship on secrets doesn’t exactly bode well for a happy future, does it? And frankly, that’s not the only thing bothering us about their upcoming union.

Are Paddy and Mandy really right for each other? Or is their marriage doomed from the start? These 5 reasons suggest it could be the latter…

1. Mandy is lying to Paddy in Emmerdale

So we know, and Rhona now knows, that money is more than a little bit tight for Mandy. In fact, she hasn’t got any at all. The salon is quiet, the debts are racking up and she could only afford a cheese sandwich and glass of tap water at the girls’ boozy lunch the other day.

Paddy is pushing 100 miles ahead with the wedding plans and doesn’t seem to have noticed how unexcited she is. In tonight’s episode (Thursday July 25) Paddy revealed their big day is set for August 15 and wanted to order the wedding breakfast at the Woolpack. Mandy quickly shushed him insisting they were just having cold food.

She then insisted the wedding would be small and low key. Rhona seemed put out and told them: “You’ve at least got to give us a couple of thrones.” But this upset Mandy who stormed out saying: “What are we, just a joke to you?”

Rhona apologised and Mandy confided she was having cash flow issues and was thousands of pounds in debt. “Don’t even think about telling him,” she said when Rhona said Paddy was going to find out.

So Mandy is starting her marriage off on a lie. A whopper of a lie. Thousands of pounds worth of lies. And it’s not the first time she’s lied to him…

2. Mandy has cheated on Paddy

There’s a saying, isn’t there? ‘Never go back’. And there’s another saying: ‘Once a cheater, always a cheater’. There’s a reason things didn’t work out the first time: Mandy lied to Paddy when she cheated one him.

Mandy and Paddy married in 1999, but by 2000, Mandy had started going to Southampton to care for her sick dad, Caleb. When Paddy travelled down to surprise her he discovered she was having an affair with Caleb’s carer, Neil.

Mandy followed him back to Emmerdale and in a special two-hander episode opened up about her affair. She told Paddy all her past relationships had made her feel worthless and she insisted she only slept with Neil once.

As she challenged Paddy saying he would have done the same in her shoes, Paddy snapped and grabbed her, screaming he hated her and would never betray her. Mandy decided to leave, but Paddy then begged her to stay before they headed to the bedroom.

However, after their tryst, Paddy couldn’t pretend everything was okay. He realised she came back to him out of guilt and that she loved Neil. He told Mandy to leave and devastated, she did.

Paddy has done his far share of cheating in relationships too, so can either of them really be trusted not to stray again? Is the past ever really in the past?

3. Paddy has been really cruel to Mandy in Emmerdale

We’re not entirely sure we’d ever forgive Paddy for the way he treated Mandy at the Vet Ball back in January. He was honestly vile.

Mandy arrived to support her other half, in a black dress with safety pins attached to it a-la 90s Liz Hurley. She’d wanted to impress everyone and had spent £100 on the outfit (might be where her money troubles started TBH).

Belle told Mandy that she looked lovely, however Paddy didn’t say anything about Mandy’s appearance. And then Jules, who had organised the whole event and seemed to be the big cheese in the veterinary world, mocked Mandy’s outfit.

Even though she was upset, not only did Paddy not defend his girlfriend, he actually failed to even mention that Mandy was his girlfriend. Instead, he pretended he was still married to Chas and she just hadn’t been able to make it.

When Ella poured her drink over Jules in defence of Mandy, Paddy thought Mandy had done it and yelled at her in front of everyone. He accused her of making a show of herself and wouldn’t let her explain what had really happened.

Even though he apologised and even though she forgave him, we can’t quite forget how absolutely awful he was to her. And if he was ashamed of her then, what has changed now?

4. Is Paddy over Chas?

Point three brings us nicely to point four. Paddy lied to Jules that he was still married to Chas – why? Is he not over her? Is Mandy just a rebound?

He has also kissed Chas – when she received her cancer diagnosis and he was comforting her. And she was the one who pulled away, not Paddy. Mandy found out and forgave him, again, because he dressed up as Prince Charming and proposed.

Making a grand gesture after kissing your ex? Smells like guilt to us. And wanting to bury your real feelings by convincing everyone you’re over your cheating wife. But we really don’t know if he is…

5. It all moved too quick

Okay, so you’d hardly call a 25 year on and off romance ‘quick’, but cast your minds back to mid-March 2024. Paddy asked Mandy to move in with him and she said no. She liked how things were between them and she was happy things weren’t moving too fast.

Fast forward all of two weeks later to the end of March and Paddy is proposing and Mandy accepts. So she’s not ready to move in together, but she will marry him – and in between all of this he kissed his ex.

So tell us, Paddy and Mandy, exactly how many cracks are you trying to cover up? Is this wedding too much too soon? Is their relationship doomed all over again?

We might be rooting for them, but we can’t help but wonder if it’s like rooting for a chocolate teapot to make a decent cuppa…

Read more: Spoilers: Mandy keeps her financial situation a secret from Paddy

Emmerdale usually airs weeknights on ITV at 7.30pm.

Classic Emmerdale usually airs every weekday on ITV3 at 6am and 6.30am, plus 1.40pm and 2.10pm.