Emmerdale star says they’re ‘ready to leave’ after two decades on soap

Emmerdale star Isabel Hodgins has admitted that she felt a lack of emotion while filming her final scenes after 20 years on the soap.

Hodgins first joined the ITV serial drama as Victoria Sugden – Emmerdale’s longest serving female character – in 2006. Since then, her character has been at the centre of many major storylines, including explosions, car accidents and falling in love with her husband’s brother.

The actor, 32, who has spent more than half her life on the soap, is expecting her first child with husband Adam Whitehead. As a result, her character is being written out of the show, with her last episodes airing this week.

But speaking about her exit, Hodgins revealed that she’d found her last days on set back in December far less emotional than she’d expected.

“I thought I would be really emotional when I filmed my final scenes. Emmerdale is all I have ever known,” she told The Sun. “But pregnancy does funny things to you and the truth is I felt ready not to have to film on Emmerdale!”

Filming for the soap, which first aired in 1972, takes place in Leeds, with Hodgins explaining that driving from her home in Manchester for work had been tiring her out during pregnancy.

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“​​By the end, I felt exhausted and I knew it was time to have a rest before the baby arrives. It suddenly feels very real now,” she said.

Hodgins was just 12 years old when she first appeared on Emmerdale. She was the third actress to play the character of Victoria, after Jessica Hayward from 1994 to 1998 and Hannah Midgley from 1998 to 2006.

Talking about joining the show at such a young age, Hodgins admitted that she “didn’t have a clue” when she started.

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“I knew nothing and I had to learn on the job but what I have learnt over time is that everyone at Emmerdale has an incredible work ethic. Everyone works so hard.”

In 2019, Hodgins was involved in what she called Victoria’s “grittiest” storyline to date, when the character was raped on a night out. Due to Emmerdale being broadcast before the 9pm watershed, the story was told in a non-linear manner through flashbacks, and marked a pivotal moment in the soap’s history.

Her final weeks on Emmerdale will be similarly dramatic. During a special crossover with Coronation Street, Victoria murdered her serial killer brother John Sugden (Oliver Farnworth), with the character handing herself in during her last week on the show.