Emmerdale legeded Sammy Winward thrilled fans recently when she announced she will soon be returning to screens in a gritty new drama.
The 36-year-old actress is known to millions as loveable Katie Sugden from the long-running ITV soap – a role she held down for an impressive 14 years.
Since quitting the soap, Sammy has been a little out of the spotlight – evidently secretly getting married and enjoying time raising her teenage daughter.
Now, as the actress prepares to make her return to the acting world, here are some of the main facts to learn about Sammy Winward.
Married life
Sammy was previously in a relationship with professional footballer David Dunn – with the pair becoming engaged during their romance which began in 2004, but ended in 2005.
She is now blissfully married to Human Resources manager Martyn Hardy – who she gushed over last year as they marked their fourth wedding anniversary.
Sharing a rare snap of herself with her 38-year-old husband, Sammy revealed they had known each other for 24 years – and were already secretly married for four years.
She wrote last October: “On our way home from our London celebrations. Had the most magical weekend. The ballet, comedy clubs, food food and more food and walking till our feet hurt."
She continued: "6 years today being engaged to the love of my life, 4 years married, 24 years of friendship and still going strong. Here’s to 24+ more."
Look-a-like daughter
While Sammy’s engagement to footballer David Dunn ended in disaster, she did welcome a child with the 42-year-old sportsman.
The former couple welcomed a daughter named Mia in June 2005 – just three months before they broke up for good.
Sammy previously gushed about being a mother, saying: "I always thought 'oh my god I'm only going to be 36/37 when she is 18' and I'm nearly there now and it's just crazy because we just feel like best mates really.
"Obviously, there is the mother and daughter relationship but we're more like best mates."
While, during an appearance on Loose Women, presenter Kaye Adams said Mia – who is following in her mother's footsteps – is the "spitting image" of the former Emmerdale star.
Acting up
Sammy played Katie Sugden on Emmerdale for 14 years – from 2001 until 2015 – with her character being killed off in a dramatic fight scene with Robert Sugden, played by Ryan Hawley.
Sammy has made it clear she doesn’t regret having her soap character killed off, saying in 2015: “It’s probably best that she was killed off. Now I won’t be looking over my shoulder all the time thinking: ‘What if I went back?’ It’s a clean cut.”
Since then, she has appeared in 2015 gritty crime drama Prey opposite Philip Glenister and John Simm, and starred in the 2017 crime drama Fearless opposite Jonathan Forbes and the late Helen McCrory.
While more recently she has appeared as a guest on Loose Women and in December last year announced she has been cast as the female lead in a new drama called The Saturday After opposite Kris Hitchen.
Make over
While Katie has the same blonde hair she used to have while starring on Emmerdale, fans will notice she looks more glamorous in real life than she does as a fictional soap character.
Sammy often gives fans tips on her make-up secrets via social media.
One post on Instagram sees her testing out some products, writing: "Such a treat trying out these new products from the lovely @giveme.cosmetics and giving my hair some much needed TLC.
"I’m always apprehensive about trying out new products on my hair but these were totally worth it. The argan oil and coconut oil hair mask was dreamy!
"It made my hair ridiculously shiny which can be so hard to achieve for us blondes!"
