Gemma Atkinson has ruled out a full-time return to soap operas, despite being invited back by Hollyoaks on multiple occasions. The actress, known for her roles in Hollyoaks and Emmerdale, cited the unpredictable scheduling and the demands of motherhood as the primary reasons for her decision.
Atkinson's Soap Opera Career
Atkinson first rose to fame as Lisa Hunter on Channel 4's Hollyoaks, appearing from 2001 to 2005 and making a brief comeback in 2022. She later joined ITV's Emmerdale in 2015 as Carly Hope, where she was involved in major storylines including the heartbreaking death of her character's baby boy, Billy, from sudden infant death syndrome, and a turbulent romance with Marlon Dingle, played by Mark Charnock.
After leaving Emmerdale in 2017, Atkinson has remained busy with other projects. She competed on Strictly Come Dancing in 2017 and starred in her own reality show with partner Gorka Márquez, titled Gemma and Gorka: Life Behind the Lens.
Podcast Revelation
During a recent episode of her podcast, Lost in Translation, which she co-hosts with Márquez, Atkinson was asked by a viewer whether she would return to soap acting. Márquez posed the question: “Would Gemma go back to acting in soaps or acting in general?”
Atkinson responded: “I would. I wouldn’t be able to do soaps again. Hollyoaks kindly asked me back a few times and I love Hollyoaks.” She elaborated on the challenges: “The thing with soaps, I love them, but you have to be on call for 24/7 unless you specifically book time off. You could have a random Thursday off in the schedule but they’ll ring and say ‘we’re planning to do exterior scenes but it’s chucking it down and we’ve changed it. We’re interior now, you’re in’.”
Motherhood and Scheduling Conflicts
Atkinson, who has two children—daughter Mia, born in 2019, and son Thiago, born in July 2023—explained that juggling childcare with the unpredictable nature of soap filming would be too stressful. “With kids and juggling that, it would be too stressful and I wouldn’t want to,” she said.
However, she left the door open for limited engagements: “However, if it was like a one-off drama, whereby they said ‘you start the 10th of May you finish the 10th of June’, 100% because there’s a start and end and I would love it.”
Emmerdale airs Monday to Friday at 8:00pm on ITV1 and ITVX.
