| Robert Sugden | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| Emmerdale character | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
 Ryan Hawley as Robert Sugden (2015) | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Portrayed by |
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| Duration | 1986–2005, 2009, 2014–2019 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| First appearance | Episode 1042 22 April 1986 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Last appearance | Episode 8637 1 November 2019 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Classification | Former; regular | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Introduced by |
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Robert Sugden is a fictional character from the British ITV soap opera Emmerdale. The character originally appeared on the show regularly between 22 April 1986 and 3 October 2005. During that time he was first played as a baby by Richard Smith between 1986 and 1989 before the role was taken over by Christopher Smith from 1989 until 2001. In 2001, Karl Davies took over the role in order for the character to become involved in more adult storylines, as he grew older. Davies briefly reprised his role as Robert for one episode, airing on 10 February 2009, when he returned for the funeral of his father and Emmerdale's longest running character, Jack Sugden (Clive Hornby). The character returned on 23 October 2014, with actor Ryan Hawley taking over the role.
During his first stint, Robert has embarked on a longstanding feud with his adoptive brother Andy (Kelvin Fletcher) after discovering he started the fire that killed their mother Sarah (Alyson Spiro). Their rivalry led to the events of Robert having an affair with Andy's wife Katie (Sammy Winward), whom he later cheated on by sleeping with her rival Sadie King (Patsy Kensit), and culminated with him causing the tragic death of Max King (Charlie Kemp) after the pair tried to kill each other by running the other down in their own vehicle. Robert subsequently left the village to avoid going to prison for Max's death, but came back briefly for Jack's funeral in February 2009.
The character returned to the series on 23 October 2014, and became the show's main antagonist throughout 2015. During that year, Robert had a sexual affair with Aaron Livesy (Danny Miller), which led to the events of Robert killing Katie on the day he married Chrissie White (Louise Marwood); embarking on a feud with Aaron's mother Chas Dingle (Lucy Pargeter) and Paddy Kirk (Dominic Brunt); getting beaten up and blackmailed by Chas' brother Cain (Jeff Hordley); and being shot by Ross Barton (Michael Parr) in the "Who Shot Robert Sugden?" storyline, in the light of his affair with Aaron and role in Katie's death both being exposed.
Following his shooting, Robert became one of the show's major protagonists as his relationship with Aaron dominated the events of the series. This long-running story arc involved Robert supporting Aaron upon discovering that he was sexually abused by his father, Gordon (Gary Mavers), as a child; becoming engaged to Aaron and later surprising him with an unofficial wedding between them in 2017; bonding with Aaron's half-sister Liv Flaherty (Isobel Steele), and temporally becoming her guardian after Aaron is arrested and sentenced to 12 months in prison – which involved Robert struggling to cope with Aaron's drug use amid serving his prison sentence; their marriage having a breakdown after Robert ends up sleeping with Chrissie's sister Rebecca (Emily Head); and the pair remarrying in 2018 after Robert and Aaron manage to reunite and reconcile over their differences.
During this time, Robert's storyline with Andy and the Whites concluded with him and Andy making amends after the pair nearly killed each other in a car-game of chicken; Robert clearing Andy's name after Chrissie framed the latter for shooting her father Lawrence (John Bowe), with the culprit being her son Lachlan (Thomas Atkinson); his one-stand with Rebecca that (allegedly) results in her getting pregnant and giving birth to her son Sebastian; his scheme to con the Whites in a revenge plot; kidnapping Sebastian when he found out that Rebecca and her family were planning to emigrate with Sebastian without his knowledge, which led to the events of Lachlan causing the deaths of Chrissie and Lawrence in a road collision; being held hostage by Lachlan after he and his girlfriend, Cain's half-sister Belle (Eden Taylor-Draper), discover that Lachlan had killed their friend Gerry Roberts (Shaun Thomas) and allegedly murdered his false uncle Paul Tozer (Daniel Casey) for discovering that he caused the deaths of his mother and grandmother; helping Rebecca from her trauma of being kidnapped by Lachlan for months and later allowing her to leave the village with Sebastian to start anew with Ross, her new boyfriend (also Seb's potential father as no paternity test was ever taken); and supporting his sister Victoria (Isabel Hodgins) after learning that she had been raped by car salesman Lee Posner (Kris Mochrie). In the latter storyline, Robert ends up killing Lee after hospitalising him in retaliation for denying to have perpetuated Victoria's rape ordeal – which sparks the events of the character's impending departure from the show when Robert, after being detained and later pleading guilty to Lee's attack prior to his death, goes on the run to avoid going to prison for the murder he unintentionally committed.