Emmerdale star Fiona Wade said despite playing the other woman in the ITV soap, she could never have an affair in real life because of her own devastating experiences of being cheated on.
Wade plays Priya Kotecha, who has betrayed her best friend Leyla Harding (Roxy Shahidi) by starting a steamy affair with her boyfriend Pete Barton (Anthony Quinlan).
But the actress said that she had been in Leyla’s position in the past, and could never do that to someone else.
She told the Daily Mirror: “I think women should stick together and honour each other, have that girl power thing.
“We should think about how other people feel.
“I’m in my 30s now, and along the way I’ve been cheated on and it is probably the worst feeling in the world.”
Wade added that one former boyfriend had come clean about his cheating, but another had never admitted it although she still knew what he had done.
She said: “A woman always knows and I trust my instinct as a woman very strongly.
“Whether it comes out or not, as a woman, if you feel like you know there has been a betrayal, and even if you might not know all the details, it still hurts.”
Talking about her character’s storyline, Wade said that she thought going behind a friend’s back made the affair even worse.
She said: “I put trust above everything, so I don’t really see how I’d be able to have a friendship after that.
“That would be the ultimate betrayal, it would be horrendous, there would be no going back.”
Wade added that she had found filming the scenes a little awkward as she did not know Quinlan very well.
She said: “We haven’t really worked together at all, so it is quite funny because suddenly you have to do these really intimate scenes.
“He is a really lovely guy, and we were very nervous doing the kissing scenes.”
