10 Totally True Facts About Claire King (Emmerdale’s Kim)
lnsidesoap YOUR BRIEFING ON THE WOMAN BEHIND EMMERDALE’S KIM…
1 Jayne Claire Seed was born in Bradford on 10 January 1962. She grew up in Harrogate with her brother, her sister, and their parents, John and Angela. Claire started to work as a DJ, before deciding she wanted to begin an acting career.
2 Claire changed her name when she registered at the actors’ union. She went by her middle name already, and after finding out that there was another actress registered as ‘Claire Seed’, she changed her surname to King. King came from her love of horse riding – known as the ‘sport of kings’ – as well as after her favourite singer, Elvis ‘The King’ Presley!
3 Claire worked as a DJ, and later managed and played in a punk rock band. After her career moved her to London, the star began working as an actress. Claire made her first soap appearance in 1989 – as an extra during James WillmottBrown’s trial in Eastenders.
4 Claire joined Emmerdale as Kim Tate, wife of Frank, in 1989. The pair moved into Home Farm, but when Kim’s son James was born, he was the result of an affair with farmhand Dave Glover. Kim later faked her own death – then came ‘back from the dead’, giving Frank a fatal heart attack! Kim departed the village in 1999 in a helicopter, along with young James, but returned to Home Farm in 2018. “My name was kept a secret on the scripts,” reveals Claire. “I had to park around the back so the fans couldn’t see me!”
5 Just like Kim, Claire loves horses! She even owns a few racehorses, and has her own stables. She also lives in a manor house that looks not unlike Home Farm – a beautiful converted barn near Harrogate, which she shares with her dogs, who even have their own room! “I do get recognised a lot,” admits Claire. “Which is one of the reasons I chose a place so remote.”
6 Claire has had an eventful love life, and when she was 17, had a fling with Bob Geldof! Years later, she met Peter Amory, who played her stepson, Chris Tate in Emmerdale. The pair soon began dating and married in 1994, although they later separated. “Nobody was to blame really,” sighs Claire. “We kind of grew apart. I had given him a second chance – it’s all right now and we’re friends.”
7 In 2014, Claire transferred to the cobbles, where she played Erica Holroyd – a friend of Liz Mcdonald’s. Erica instantly hit it off with Nick Tilsley, and became pregnant with his baby, which she sadly lost after a miscarriage. Later, Erica became the on-off girlfriend of Dev, but left the Street on bad terms with almost everyone!
“It was great being on Corrie!” grins Claire. “It was more or less the same as Emmerdale, just with different faces.”
8 Back in 2007, Claire flew over to Africa to take part in the reality TV show Safari School. A group of celebrities began training to become game wardens, and the winner got to release two big cats back into the wild. “I’m an outdoorsy person,” reveals Claire. “For the show, I lived in Africa for about a month, which was a dream come true for me.” Claire ultimately finished in third place, but went further in the contest than her fellow soap stars Blair Mcdonough (Neighbours’ Stuart Parker), Brooke Kinsella (Eastenders’ Kelly Taylor) and Paul Usher (Brookside’s Barry Grant).
9 Claire’s other TV roles include governor Karen Betts in Bad Girls and a role as an evil gangster in Hollyoaks late night spin-off In The City. “The good thing about Bad Girls was that there were 30 or 40 women all together, and we had such a laugh,” says Claire. “There wasn’t any bitching, which you’d think there would be. Everyone was so down to earth.”
10 Claire admits that she hasn’t always had the best reaction from fans, who recognise her as Kim. “I was once hit over the head with an umbrella in M&S by an old lady,” reveals Claire. “Just because I had been cruel to Frank!” Claire also admits that the reactions from some fans made her feel apprehensive about taking on her most famous part once more. “I was nervous about doing the role justice again,” says Claire. “Everybody’s a critic now, thanks to social media, and some of the comments can be very cutting.”