Emily Atack has opened up about becoming pregnant as a teenager while in an 'awful, abusive and horrible relationship', revealing the experience for the first time in a podcast interview. The 36-year-old actress, best known for her role in The Inbetweeners, said the pregnancy occurred when she was 16, coinciding with her parents' divorce.
Speaking on the How To Fail podcast, Atack described the period as 'very difficult' for her parents, actress Kate Robbins and musician Keith Atack. 'I was sexually active with older boys and men,' she said. 'I remember when my dad left, and I've never actually told anybody this, but I was pregnant and I was very young.' She added that the pregnancy 'didn't continue'.
Atack also disclosed that she was sexually assaulted at the age of 10, which she said led to 'really unhealthy relationships with men' in her adolescence. 'From that moment I was treated appallingly by older men from that age, throughout my life,' she said. She noted that her parents still do not know the full extent of how men have treated her.
After her parents' divorce, Atack left school and moved to London with her sister Martha. She stressed that her parents are 'amazing people' and that she does not blame them for her struggles. 'Everybody makes mistakes, and this was just a period of time where lots of mistakes were being made,' she said. 'As a mother, I understand.'
Atack is now engaged to Dr Alistair Garner, a materials scientist, and the couple welcomed their first child, a son named Barney James, in 2024. They are set to marry later this year.
