CLAIRE KING

EMMERDALE LEGEND CLAIRE KING OPENS UP TO OK!’S OLIVER GRADY ABOUT THE CRUEL AGEISM THAT FORCED HER TO QUIT SOCIAL MEDIA

Soap superbitch Kim Tate is always at the centre of some dastardly scheme in Emmerdale, but off screen, actress Claire King doesn’t do drama. As she invites OK! into her beautiful home – a converted barn deep in the Yorkshire dales that she shares with her partner of 13 years – the 57-year-old reveals how she recently removed herself from social media after being bullied for ageing.

“I just don’t have time for it or need it in my life,” Claire says. “The comments get very personal and it’s always agerelated... I don’t need somebody I don’t know being nasty for the sake of it.”

Social media is just one of the things that has come along since the actress was first in Emmerdale 31 years ago. Claire joined the ITV soap as conniving

Kim in 1989 and spent a decade terrorising the dales.

During that time, she fell in love and married her co-star Peter Amory (who played her on-screen stepson Chris Tate) but she left the soap in 1999 to pursue new opportunities.

While her marriage to Peter ended in 2004, her career went from strength to strength. Claire took on starring roles in everything from Bad Girls to Coronation Street, while also dipping her toe into reality TV in the form of Strictly Come Dancing and Celebrity Big Brother.

In late 2018, however, Claire was tempted back to Emmerdale to reprise the villainous role she is best known for, and hasn’t looked back.

Here, she explains why she won’t let bullies stop her from “ageing