Emmerdale star: Viewers are upset my character’s not a lesbian
Emmerdale actress Michelle Hardwick has revealed she had angry messages from fans – after her character started dating a man following a lesbian storyline.
The star plays Vanessa Woodfield on the soap, who had a relationship with Rhona Goskirk (Zoe Henry) before dating current boyfriend Kirin Kotecha (Adam Fielding).
She told Digital Spy: “There are certain people on Twitter that were so upset that Vanessa is not a lesbian after the Rhona story.
“I don’t respond to everyone but what I say is that when Vanessa came into the village, she wasn’t a lesbian.
“She was a free spirit who was quite man mad, eyeing up Andy Sugden at the bar.
“Vanessa fell in love with her best friend who she was helping through a difficult time, and it became more of an obsession.
“Some people would prefer her to be with a woman, but hey ho – let’s mix it up a bit, that’s what I say!”
She added: “I’d love the Vanessa and Kirin relationship to last, but truthfully I don’t know what’s going to happen beyond what we’re doing now.”
Hardwick proposed to her girlfriend in real life on New Year’s Eve, 2013.
Creative director John Whiston said at the time: I wholly agree that including such unchallenged attitudes in Emmerdale is plain wrong.
“It is a huge disappointment to me and to the team that in this instance such unthinking and old-fashioned prejudice should have crept into the show in this way.
“Apparently it was added at a very late stage before filming when the show was in danger of under-running.”
