Emma Atkins is one of Emmerdale's most iconic figures.
The 48-year-old soap star has played Charity Dingle in the fictional Yorkshire village across two turbulent stints. She first arrived on the ITV show in 2000 and the Woolpack owner continues to be at the centre of the action.
Charity tied the knot with Mackenzie Boyd in the most dramatic of circumstances this week. The character's big day was derailed when she decided to by Mackenzie an A-team van as a wedding present.
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This caused problems as the van had been involved in a robbery and PC Swirling arrested the couple for the crime. However, they were eventually released and overcame the obstacles to tie the knot in Thursday's episode.
Emma appeared on Loose Women earlier this week and was taken aback as she discovered it was the eighth time her on-screen counterpart had been married. However, she was in hysterics as she made an admission on her own love life when she explained how she couldn't be more different to her character.
She told the panel: "Charity has been married eight times, I've never been married. She's a bada*s, I'm really nice. I struggle to ever defend the character whenever I do interviews."
Away from the fictional Yorkshire village, Emma has been in a happy long term relationship with her partner, Tom, for many years and they welcomed a son into the world named Albert just before her 40th birthday.
Emma hid her pregnancy so she didn't spoil a storyline that culminated in her being sent to prison for fraud in 2015. She briefly exited the show for maternity leave after she was written out and has since provided an insight into how she balances her parental duties with her role in Emmerdale.
She told OK! magazine: "I was trying to learn my lines yesterday and Albert was really grabbing everything! It was so messy. But I have managed to balance it – I don’t know how."
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