Inside Emmerdale legend Claire King's battle with addiction and near financial ruin

Emmerdale's Kim Tate has experienced her fair share of drama since entering the Yorkshire village in 1989, and Claire King, the actress who plays her, has also been through a lot over the decades. In an unearthed interview, Claire, now 63, bravely opened up about her addiction battle, bitter divorce, and how she faced financial ruin.

Speaking to counsellor Mandy Saligari on the Channel 5 show Therapy in 2017, the star said the breakdown of her marriage to Peter Amory, who played Chris Tate on Emmerdale, set it all off.

She said: "I knew he always gambled, but not in that way. Lose your house money, lose everything money. I was £9,000 short of paying my mortgage off and then suddenly, poof. It was just horrible and it was draining."

The couple ended their marriage after 10 years when it emerged Peter had been unfaithful with their co-star Samantha Giles, who plays Bernice Blackstock on the soap.

Claire admitted, "We'd split up due to his infidelity. That and the fact every bugger knew. "It happened in my house, the local pub, workplace.

"Then they split, and we thought we'd work it out, but then they got together again. Six months later - finished. I felt as though it was the end of something, but also a failure. And I didn't want it to be a failure. It was a loss as well. It was a failure of a marriage, but the loss of a good friend. I really didn't know it would affect me so badly."

The well-loved actress said she drank alcohol to mask her own financial concerns after she struggled to find work when she left the ITV drama Bad Girls.

She'd been enjoying an array of roles since her big break in an Adam and the Ants music video in 1982, and the thought of financial ruin was a tough pill to swallow for Claire.

Claire told the therapist: "Hitting 40, having a divorce, not having children, and getting deeper into debt. I sold my wardrobe, dresses, and everything, even collectors' items, as I had no money. I thought, 'God, am I ever going to work again?'"

"I think I was depressed. I was on a very rocky road at the time," she admitted. "It wasn't a great time, and that's where I went a bit off the rails, drinking too much."

The star managed to turn things around when she landed a role in Coronation Street in 2014 following a facelift. She quipped: "My agent at the time had said, 'Right, what you need is a facelift.' It got me loads of work because I just felt better about myself, and it gave me a little perk up."

Claire rejoined the Emmerdale cast permanently in 2019, and according to reports, she is currently the highest-paid actor on the ITV soap. "That's why I work, that's why I try and put some money away for a pension, for the future, in case I'm disabled," she told the counsellor. "I don't have the kids who could look after me."

According to London Theatre News, she earns £230,000 per year for her role as Kim.

She recently put pen to paper to sign a new deal, which will keep her on the soap for another year.

Speaking about what is in store for Kim, a source told The Sun: "She's going to stop at nothing to get what she wants - and make a few more enemies in the process as well as potentially changing the village forever."

A spokesperson for Peter told The Mirror: "Peter continues to be very busy working as an actor but can confirm that he and Claire have a very amicable relationship and are in regular contact with one another."