Netflix’s romance series One Day ending explained as viewers left in tears after final episode

Ever since the brand-new One Day series first dropped on Netflix earlier this month (8 February), fans all over have been left in pieces by the drama's absolutely heartbreaking ending.

The series tells the decades-spanning love story of protagonists Dex (White Lotus star Leo Woodall) and Emma (This is Going to Hurt's Ambika Mod) as we catch up with them on the same day every year, 15 July, St. Swithin's Day.

It's no surprise that Netflix viewers were left bawling their eyes out with many totally stunned by the 'devastating' ending. Check out the official trailer here:

If the premise for the series sounds a tad familiar, it's because it's another adaptation of David Nicholls' 2009 worldwide bestselling novel One Day, which was originally adapted into the 2011 feature film starring Anne Hathaway and Jim Sturgess.

Fans of the 14-episode series have since rushed to social media to share their thoughts on the heart-wrenching ending: "I'm only halfway through episode one of One Day but Leo Woodall and Ambika Mod have insane chemistry."

"This adaptation is so good already I feel sick," revealed a second, while a third chimed in: "This is definitely a must watch!!"

A fourth joked: "I believe One Day on Netflix was made for me and uploaded today for me to watch only, as a form of therapy. It’s a private screening."

"THE ENDING?? Who put rom-com under One Day are you actually kidding?" admitted another Netflix viewer. "Crying myself to sleep what the actual hell."

Netflix

A final Twitter user echoed: "Who decided that One Day needed a remake?? The Anne Hathaway movie wasn't devastating enough??"

Now, you've been warned, some major spoilers are coming up.

Towards the end of the series, we see Emma and Dex finally get married and start putting plans in place for their future, with Emma telling Dex she wants to have a baby.

Then in the penultimate episode set in 2000, everything takes a turn for the worse and tragedy rips through the lives of the young couple.

Netflix

While cycling on her way to meet Dex at a viewing for a house they are hoping to buy together, Emma is sadly hit by a car and dies.

Whether you've read the book, watched the 2011 film of if the series was the first time you heard of the tale, the ending is definitely a pretty heartbreaking gut-punch of a moment so much so that show runner, Nicole Taylor, was tempted to give the show an alternate ending.

Speaking to The Wrap, she explained: "I didn’t want to do that to her because I love her.

"Everyone who read the book remembers how they felt when that happened. You just want to throw the book out the window."

However, she acknowledged that 'fundamentally, that ending is stitched into the work as a whole'.

Netflix

She continued: "The story kind of has its own thematic integrity, it has its own structural integrity.

"I feel like the overall meaning of the piece requires that, and I felt like any changing of the ending would be gratuitous and undermine the overall impact of the piece so I think it was the right thing to have a good think about it, question it and not just take it as given."

One Day is currently available to stream on Netflix.