Emmerdale' star Samantha Giles breaks silence on mother’s heartbreaking illness

Emmerdale star Samantha Giles showed remarkable strength when her mother suffered a devastating stroke just as she was in the middle of a theatre tour. 

The actress, best known for playing Bernice Blackstock since the 1990s, received the heartbreaking news only hours before she was due on stage in Shrewsbury for a performance of The Syndicate alongside former Coronation Street star Brooke Vincent.

Samantha revealed, “I was half way through the tour when I got a call to say my mum had suffered a stroke. It was a brain haemorrhage and most people die when they have that. I found out on a Wednesday morning and we had two shows that day.”

Despite the shock, the star decided the show must go on, explaining, “If you are doing a TV show and something disastrous happens in your family, you can reschedule things but you can’t do that with a stage show. 

People bought tickets and everything. There were understudies, of course, but you don’t want to let people down.”

The actress admitted it was one of the hardest moments of her life. “While I was out there, I didn’t know what was going on and how my mum was. I didn’t know if she was going to pull through. It was very challenging,” she said.

However, Samantha later learned that her mother was out of immediate danger and surgery was not required.