Eden Taylor-Draper is “being challenged like never before” with her ongoing domestic abuse storyline, says her Emmerdale co-star.

Belle Dingle is currently being controlled by her manipulative husband Tom King (James Chase) and Charity Dingle becomes suspicious of their relationship in upcoming scenes of the ITV soap set to air this week.

Emma, who has played Charity Dingle since 2000, has opened up about her character Charity being involved the “difficult to watch” storyline and also working with her co-star Eden.

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Speaking to the press, Emma said: “I love Eden will all my heart so working with her as well, because we do see each other socially, it’s great because we’ve got some good stuff coming up so she’s going to come over and stay and we’re going to blast the scenes and work on it really hard.

“When we come to do this lovely episode it will have real meaning because we would have worked on it. She’s smashing it out of the park as the young ones would say. She is truly remarkable and I think she’s really found herself and she’s really coming into her own and she’s doing stuff and being challenged in a way she’s ever been before and she’s stepping up to the mark and I’m really proud of her as a friend.”

“I have been watching and it’s strong stuff. I spend a lot of my time screaming at Tom. It’s difficult to watch sometimes I must say. It’s a lovely opportunity for Charity to be with Belle.”

The corecive storyline with Belle and Tom has dominated the soap ever since the paie tied the knot on Valentine’s Day and their relationship has got progessively worse over the past few months.

Producer Laura Shaw has revealed that she’s been blown away by the audience’s reaction to the storyline and hinted exactly when Tom could finally get exposed. She told the press: “We said right from the beginning that we wanted to tell this story as truthfully and authentically as we can and let’s face it for people who are subjected to domestic abuse this isn’t something that’s over in a couple of weeks.

“I have been watching and it’s strong stuff. I spend a lot of my time screaming at Tom. It’s difficult to watch sometimes I must say. It’s a lovely opportunity for Charity to be with Belle.”

The coercive storyline with Belle and Tom has dominated the soap ever since the pair tied the knot on Valentine’s Day and their relationship has got progressively worse over the past few months.

Producer Laura Shaw has revealed that she’s been blown away by the audience’s reaction to the storyline and hinted exactly when Tom could finally get exposed. She told the press: “We said right from the beginning that we wanted to tell this story as truthfully and authentically as we can and let’s face it for people who are subjected to domestic abuse this isn’t something that’s over in a couple of weeks.

“I think the audience reaction has been phenomenal. Domestic abuse is not new to soap but the reaction has been incredible and the letters and comments we’ve had from women and men reaching out and we’re aware we’re giving people a voice to speak out and that’s what we want. What we will see is Tom finding different ways to manipulate Belle and to control Belle so we will see an escalation.”

You can access free and confidential support from Refuge’s 24-hour National Domestic Abuse Helpline on 0808 2000 247 and digital support via live chat Monday-Friday 3-10pm via www.nationaldahelpline.org.uk. You can also visit the the tech safety website https://refugetechsafety.org/ to learn more about technology-facilitated abuse.