John Sugden

John Sugden is the long-lost son of Jack Sugden, born to Jack's ex-girlfriend Barbara following their brief fling in early-1988. In August 2024, Jack's daughter Victoria Sugden learned of her half-brother's existence.
==Biography==
===1988-2024: Life before Emmerdale===
John Sugden was born in late-1988 to Barbara following a month-long fling with Jack Sugden earlier in the year. At the time of John's birth, Jack was residing in Italy with his two-year-old son Robert, his girlfriend Marian Rosetti, as well as Marian's baby son Nicolo. John was raised by Barbara and an unnamed step-father, who he thinks of as his real father. Jack died in February 2009 without ever knowing of John's existence. 
John himself joined the army and became a trained medic. While in the Army, John was close to Aidan Moore, another man in his unit. The two were in a relationship but kept it secret from everyone else in their unit. The relationship ended when Aidan died while he and John were in Afghanistan. After this, John left the Army and refused to let anyone else get close to him. He then started living in his camper van, travelling from place to place until his arrival in the village.
===2024: Arrival in Emmerdale and relationship with Aaron===
In August 2024, John arranged to meet with Aaron Dingle at the Cornbrook Hotel after connecting on a dating app, unaware of their connection as Aaron was previously married to John's half-brother Robert Sugden. On the way to the hotel, John's campervan broke down in a phone signal blackspot. Luckily, John spotted Aaron on the way to the hotel and they soon realised they were meeting each other. Former mechanic Aaron managed to fix John's campervan at the roadside and afterward the pair hooked up in the campervan. Whilst Aaron was urinating against a tree, John drove away with Aaron's wallet and the keys to Eric Pollard's car that he borrowed from the garage in his campervan leaving Aaron stranded.
The next day, Joh attended his mother’s funeral at a church in town. Eric Pollard also happened to be at the funeral and had asked John’s half-sister, Victoria Sugden, to drive him after Aaron lost his car keys. Eric introduced John and Victoria after the service but John was not interested in getting to know his sister and left. However, John’s camper van broke down that afternoon and John took it to the nearest garage, which happened to be Barton and Dingle Automotives in the village. When he arrived he was spotted by Victoria, who once again tried to get to know her brother but John insisted that he wanted nothing to do with her and that he was only there to get his van fixed. Local mechanic, Cain Dingle, then informed John it would take a couple of days to get the parts for the van and Victoria offered to let him stay with her until the repairs were finished. John reluctantly agreed to this, but remained adamant that the arrangement was temporary, and that he had no intention of getting to know Victoria. Aaron later saw John heading to Keepers Cottage, where Victoria lives. Aaron confronted John about leaving him on the side of the road but John brushed him off. This made Aaron angrier and he tried to punch John, but John quickly dodged and hit Aaron in the stomach. He then walked away, after warning Aaron not to mess with him again.
The next day John was still anxious to leave the village and continued to ignore Victoria’s attempts to bond with him. When Aaron sees Victoria in the pub, he is shocked when she introduces John as her brother. He and Aaron then agree to keep their fling a secret from Vic. Aaron and John have a flirtatious argument when Vic leaves them alone and John tricks Aaron into leaning in for a kiss. He teases Aaron over this and then leaves. Over the next few days, John does seem to enjoy spending time with his nephew, Harry Sugden despite his rejection of any kind of family. John then gets a job helping at Butler’s Farm, to the annoyance of Mackenzie Boyd, who also works there, as he is close friends with Aaron and dislikes John. The next day, Aaron is at the garage with Mack when John comes to ask about his van. Mack tells John that his van will be ready the next day. John and Aaron clash again, then Mack tries to punch him but John pins him against a wall. This only furthers Mackenzie’s dislike of John and the next day he and Aaron take revenge by stealing his van and leaving it in the middle of nowhere. John is furious, as his van is his only possession, and so he threatens Mack and Aaron into telling him where it is. They take John to the road where they left it, only to find Mack left the handbrake off and the van rolled into a pond. John is devastated by this and storms off as Mack and Aaron mock him. He tells Mack’s boss, Cain, about the incident and Cain promises John that Mack will fix the van for free.
On the 15th August, John finds Vic snooping through his camper van. She finds some military dog tags and interrogates John about them but he throws her out of the van. He then berates her for invading his privacy and reiterates that he doesn’t want a sister, or any other family. John then moves out of Keepers Cottage and goes back to living in his camper van. A few days later Victoria goes to Butler’s and apologises to John for snooping. She returns the dog tags to John and says he can use her house for any facilities that his van doesn’t have, to which John agrees. Once she leaves, John looks at the dog tags sadly and it is revealed they belong to Aidan Moore.
In September 2024, John and Aaron began a casual relationship when they had sex in a barn at Butler’s. They kept this a secret for a short while, until Victoria caught them kissing a few days later. John and Aaron apologise for keeping it a secret but she tells them she is happy for them. However, the issue of Aaron’s ex, Robert, soon gets brought up. John insults Robert by calling him a murderer while talking with Aaron, which Aaron doesn’t take kindly to. They make up after this, but still neither one will admit the relationship is anything more than a fling.
In October, the gate to the bull’s pen at Butler’s is left open and the bull gets out. It attacks Mack, resulting in him going to hospital with concussion. Mack assumes that John left the gate open and set the bull on him, which causes another argument between the two. Moira Dingle, Mack’s sister-who also owns the farm- tells John she can’t have the two of them fighting instead of working and so lets John go. Later it is revealed that Moira left the gate open, and when Mack realises this he apologises to John, which allows them to put their issues to rest. In late October, John starts helping Aaron and Mack train Billy Fletcher for his illegal boxing match after treating him for some other injuries. John warns Billy against the fight as he is still hurt, but Billy ignores this and goes through with it. 
In early November, John is further involved in the illegal boxing matches as he helps Aaron arrange Billy’s rematch against Ross Barton at Butler’s. John is not fully onboard with this plan and calls the police about the fight. He then bursts into the barn halfway through the match and warns everyone that the police are coming. As people flee the barn, one of Jade Garrick’s thugs hits Aaron. This causes him to collapse and John realises his lung has collapsed. He uses his Army medical training to treat Aaron until paramedics arrive, saving his life. Later, at the hospital, Aaron is very grateful toward John and the couple become much closer. John saving Aaron’s life also gains him the approval of Aaron’s mother, Chas Dingle. John also received a job offer from GP, Dr Liam Cavanagh to become a Paramedic Practitioner for the Brook Cottage Surgery which John accepts. A few days later, he also accepts Aaron’s offer to move in with him at Apartment Two, Mill Cottage.
In December John takes Aaron on a camping trip in the woods. He explains to Aaron that he used to do that sort of thing with Aidan. Aaron also opens up to John and the two grow closer. They each end up saying they love each other.
==Residences==
Address 	Duration
Campervan 	Until 8th August 2024
Keepers Cottage 	8th August 2024 to 15th August 2024
Campervan 	15th August 2024 to 11th November 2024
Apartment Two, Mill Cottage	11th November 2024 to present
==Additional information==
*John is Jack's second son to be named John after himself (John Jacob Sugden) as his eldest son was named John Jacob Merrick although he went by "Jackie".
*John is a trained medic after being in the army.
Category:Emmerdale characters
Category:Current characters
Category:Sugden family
Category:1988 births
Category:2024 debuts
Category:Residents of Keepers Cottage
Category:Residents of Apartment Two, Mill Cottage
Category:Armed Forces Personnel
Category:Farmhands