Emmerdale fans confused as they realise major character has been missing for months

Emmerdale fans have noticed much loved member of the village Leyla Harding (Roxy Shahidi) is currently nowhere to be seen.

The character, who made her arrival way back in 2008, is mum to Jacob Gallagher (Joe-Warren Plant) and the ex-wife of Liam Cavanagh (Jonny McPherson).

Leyla’s life has been significantly quieter this year. Following the breakdown in her marriage to Liam, Leyla took centre stage in a storyline that highlighted her secret addiction to drugs.

Last year, Leyla attempted to take down her drug dealer Callum, but it resulted in the man taking her hostage and tying her up in a remote cabin in the woods.

In recent months, the character has been on hand to support Jacob with his relationship drama, and digging into the history of Liam’s new love interest Ella Forster (Paula Lane).

Intriguingly, we haven’t actually seen Leyla at all this autumn. In fact, according to the Emmerdale wiki page and Roxy’s IMDb, the last time we saw her was actually in the episode broadcasted on July 23. The instalment saw Leyla and Tracy (Amy Walsh) confront Ella over their suspicions she was lying about being pregnant with Liam’s baby.

Despite fans picking up on the character’s disappearance and sharing their thoughts online, a spokesperson for Emmerdale has confirmed to Metro that Roxy hasn’t left the show and is still filming as Leyla, we just haven’t seen her a great deal due to the focus being on other members of the village.

Roxy recently starred alongside a variety of soap stars such as Jorgie Porter and Ellie Leach for ITVBe’s new reality show Drama Queens.

She also joined the likes of Ryan Thomas and Adele Roberts in the latest series of Dancing on Ice as Holly Willoughby returned to host alongside Stephen Mulhern.