Kim Tate star Claire King was once married to her co-star(Image: ITV)
Claire King, renowned for portraying Kim Tate on the ITV drama, was wed to her on-screen son before making a startling revelation that brought their marriage to an end. The actress first appeared on Emmerdale as Kim in 1989 before departing a decade later to explore other projects, including Bad Girls as Karen Betts, and Erica Holroyd in competing soap Coronation Street.
Thankfully, she staged a spectacular return as Kim in 2018, with the character now living at the opulent Home Farm estate. Yet, it was while Claire was in her initial period in the Dales that she encountered her future spouse, Peter Amory, who portrayed Chris Tate, the son of Kim’s husband Frank (Norman Bowler), reports the Mirror.
Brought in during 1989, Chris Tate belonged to the founding Tate dynasty on Emmerdale, moving to the village alongside his father, Frank, sister, Zoe, and stepmother, Kim.
Peter Amory and Claire King in character as Chris and Kim Tate in television soap Emmerdale (Photo by(Image: Alan Olley/TV Times via Getty Images))
Throughout his 14 years on the ITV soap, the character wed three times, became father to two children and maintained lengthy rivalries with both his dad and Kim.
During his closing years, Chris’s destiny became tragically linked with Charity Dingle’s, portrayed by Emma Atkins. Exposed as the father of Charity’s unborn child, he never had the chance to meet Noah (Jack Downham) as he took his own life before his son’s birth, reports the Express.
Away from the ITV soap, love flourished between Claire and Peter, who wed in 1994 and stayed together for ten years. Their union, however, ended suddenly when allegations emerged that Peter had cheated on Claire with fellow Emmerdale star Samantha Giles, who played Bernice Blackstock.
Claire King met her former husband on set of Emmerdale(Image: Mike Marsland, Mike Marsland/WireImagevia Getty Images)
“I had a feeling that something was going on,” she told the Mirror in 2005. “I was working in London and we were spending less and less time together. I was travelling back to Yorkshire every weekend. I remember Pete saying that I only came back to see my dogs and horses… and I thought: ‘Well, yeah, and to catch you at it!’.
“But then it was Samantha’s husband who wrote me a letter and told me. That was about four years ago. I questioned Pete and he admitted it had been going on for a while. He told me it was over but then it started again.”
Despite the heartbreaking revelation, Claire found love again and is now happily wed. Her spouse prefers to stay away from the spotlight, and she has become stepmother to his two youngsters.
Emmerdale airs weekdays on ITV and ITVX.
