Emmerdale star breaks silence on Jimmy King’s shocking double life

Emmerdale spoilers follow.

Emmerdale star Nicola Wheeler has spoken about Jimmy King’s secret life for the first time.

Her character Nicola King had her whole world turned upside-down this week, as Jimmy’s ex-wife Sadie returned and claimed that they’d been back together for the past three years.

While Nicola immediately dismissed this as one of Sadie’s cruel cons, the ruthless character soon produced various pieces of evidence which appeared to back up her story.

As the story continues, Nicola must deal with the very real possibility that Jimmy was playing her for a fool all this time. How will she cope?

Here, Nicola Wheeler chats about the bombshell storyline twist…

Hi, Nicola! How is Nicola feeling now that she’s found out about Jimmy’s supposed other life?

“At first Nicola thought Sadie was a big fat liar, but Sadie has produced some very convincing evidence! There’s the room service bill that was in Jimmy’s name, Sadie has shown her pictures and she also somehow knows all about their children’s lives. It’s all the things that you wouldn’t find on social media – you wouldn’t be able to source this, so it had to come from Jimmy.

“Nicola now realises it has to be true. Sadie says they have been in a relationship for the past three years, so it stands to reason that Nicola starts to panic that Jimmy was going to leave her.”

Why would Jimmy do this to Nicola?

“Well, that’s what Nicola is asking! She doesn’t understand what’s been going on. She feels like the last three years of their life, if not their entire marriage, has been a lie. That’s why she had the drunken moment with Kev – she wasn’t going to sit there and pine over a man who clearly didn’t care about her!”

Do the three King kids become aware of Sadie’s claims?

“No, that is something that Nicola tries to keep away from the children. Carl does ask one question later on, but she shuts it down and tries to keep the children out of it.

“As far as they’re concerned, Sadie is just dad’s ex-wife who’s devastated at his death, and Sadie agrees to that as well. She is a b***h, but she is at least kind in that sense!”

Will we see a more vulnerable side to Nicola now?

“Oh, absolutely! You’ll see the old Nicola spike at first but then you see a Nicola who doesn’t know who she is anymore. She’s already lost a huge part of herself by losing her husband, a man she adored more than anything or anyone in this world.

“Then to fear that he didn’t feel the same about her, and actually he’s hoodwinked her for the past three years of her life, she just hits rock bottom and she’s floored by it all.”

How did you feel about exploring such a big twist for the Kings’ marriage?

“I think it’s really interesting to take a character like Jimmy, who was really loved, and throw it on its head and go ‘Actually…’ People would’ve thought that would be something that Nicola would do, not Jimmy!”

And poor Jimmy isn’t there to defend himself…

“But all the evidence is backing up that everything Sadie is saying is true. The trail of destruction Jimmy leaves, unwittingly, suggests that he has been behaving appallingly for the past few years.”

Have you spoken to Nick Miles, who played Jimmy, about his character’s shocking double life?

“Yes, but obviously Nick doesn’t know anything! I mean, I could tell him anything – I might tell him more lies, I might tell him loads of stuff!

“No, I do tell him things and I’ve promised him that Jimmy has a good funeral. I sent him a picture of his coffin with us smiling at it. I said ‘Aww, we’re burying you today, bye’. He was on holiday. I won’t tell him too much, though, he can watch it like everybody else!”

What was it like to film the recent slap scene at The Woolpack with Patsy Kensit, who plays Sadie?

“It was good fun! You’ve always got the jokers on set, like Ryan [Hawley, who plays Robert], Danny [Miller, who plays Aaron] and the others who were in the back of shot going ‘Oooo!’ They were really naughty when we were doing the slap scene!

“But it was a classic scene in The Woolpack with Nicola losing her temper. I don’t condone violence in that way, but for Nicola to be told that the man she loved was with another woman, it was quite devastating! And at that point, Nicola didn’t believe her.”

How familiar is Nicola with Sadie’s games?

“I don’t think they crossed paths too much last time – I left as Patsy came in, and then as I came back, she was going. So we did cross paths to say hello, but I don’t think our characters really had anything to do with each other at that point.”

What were Sadie’s arrival scenes like to film?

“They were fun, with the repeat of her arriving by helicopter. We were amazed by the guy who just drove round and round in circles and then he landed it. There were fewer people than last time because it was the mourners at the crash site, but it was beautifully done. Sadie just swanned in, had a few barbed comments and off she swanned into her limousine and she was driven down to The Woolpack.”

Will Lewis support Nicola? Especially now we know that Vinny caused the crash…

“Yes, there is something that links them both. We’ve got some really lovely scenes together of Nicola and Lewis, where they’re both in a state where they feel betrayed…”