Soap star plans to grow old gracefully
Zoe Henry feels much better having given up drinking
on. But I am not drinking at the moment and I am enjoying it. Everything feels better – my energy levels are better, I am a better parent.”
But Zoe admits there are some downsides to being teetotal. She explains: “I do feel boring sometimes.
“We went to the National Television Awards and I totally lost my confidence and couldn’t do the red carpet.
“I wondered if I’d had a couple of glasses of fizz I might have felt better about it. Alcohol just gives you that confidence you might be lacking.
“But it is suddenly not embarrassing any more not to drink. I always said the biggest problem is other people – ‘Why aren’t you drinking?’. But it has become perfectly acceptable.”
The lack of booze is clearly working wonders – Zoe has lost weight and looks younger than her 45 years.
But she admits she is thinking more about growing older, particularly as her character Rhona is being faced with a tough storyline. Rhona learns she has to have a hysterectomy after they discovered fibroids in her womb while treating her for injuries she suffered in a horrific farming accident. It means she will hit menopause immediately.
But it is not the first time Zoe has dealt with tough storylines. Before she returned to Emmerdale, she twice appeared on Coronation Street, playing eco-warrior Log Thwaite in 1998.
In 2007, she starred as child abductor Casey Carswell, who had an affair with Ashley Peacock, played by Steven Arnold. In Emmerdale her character Rhona has been addicted to painkillers and she had a fling with her friend Vanessa Woodfield, played by Michelle Hardwick, to manipulate her into getting drugs. But FLING Rhona & Vanessa share a kiss Zoe is happy to tackle tricky issues. Rhona’s storyline will be the first time the menopause has been dealt with head-on in a British soap. She says: “Even now in 2019, it is a subject that women don’t really talk about.”
Viewers will see Rhona suffering hot sweats, anxiety and mood swings, and questioning if her relationship with Pete Barton [Anthony Quinlan], Character’s horrific accident who is 13 years her junior, can survive. Zoe says: “It is hard getting older, and it is one of nature’s cruellest blows that women go through the menopause as their children are leaving the nest. In another three years, when I am probably going to be embarking on the menopause, my daughter will be leaving home.”
But Zoe is determined to stay healthy so that she is better prepared.
She says: “The menopause is coming and I think that informs how I live my life – I don’t drink, I exercise every day, we cook from scratch.
“I’m investing in myself and doing all I can to keep myself healthy – and whatever happens with the menopause, I will just have to deal with.”
■ Emmerdale, ITV every weeknight.