Emmerdale star’s real-life famous girlfriend ‘warned’ as she reveals his huge soap secrecy
Samantha Womack has revealed that she often finds herself being 'warned' about her real-life boyfriend Oliver Farnworth
Oliver Farnworth playing John Sugden in Emmerdale(Image: ITV)
Former EastEnders star Samantha Womack has revealed that she often finds herself being ‘warned’ about her real-life boyfriend thanks to his own villainous soap role.
Fellow actor Oliver Farnworth joined Emmerdale back in August 2024 in the mysterious role of John Sugden. The character, who was revealed as the long-lost son of Jack Sugden, has been causing chaos in the village since he joined.
But to the frustration of viewers, most of his actions have gone unnoticed. So it seems his character’s shocking actions, including the accidental k.i.l.l.i.n.g of Nate Robinson, has followed him into his personal life.
So much so, Samantha, who is famed for having played Ronnie Mitchelle in BBC’s EastEnders, admits she actually gets warned about her boyfriend when she’s out and about because of his on-screen role.
Sharing an insight into her relationship with Emmerdale’s newest villain, Samantha told The Sun: “I do get warned about him. But Oli is actually so strict about confidentiality. So he comes back every few days and he won’t tell me what’s happening with anything.
“He’s like ‘I just can’t let you know,’ and I’ll say ‘come on I’m not going to tell anybody.’ But I really think this is one of his favourite jobs to date. I visited the set and it’s beautiful. They have rolling hills and cute cottages. It’s very different to EastEnders.
Samantha and Oliver found love in 2019(Image: Samantha Womack Instagram)
“And what is funny is he gets a lot of attention when he goes up north, but when we go down south everyone knows me from EastEnders so it changes where we go.”
Samantha and Oliver share a home in Spain together, after first growing close in 2019 while working on stage play, The Girl on the Train.
Oliver has previously told how Samantha’s ex-husband Mark Womack, who starred in Emmerdale as dodgy police officer Mark Malone in 2020, was full of praise for the show and offered him words of encouragement when he got his own role in the Dales.
He told The Mirror at the time: “Mark is a good friend. I actually just spoke to him yesterday. And when I got offered [the part in Emmerdale], Mark told me it was a great job. He was full of praise for the place.”
Speaking further about Mark’s kind advice, the former Coronation Street star continued: “I remember [Mark] saying when he was filming, that it’s such a gorgeous place to work – it’s really, really brilliant.
“So when this came along, I was excited. And it is great. He said to me, ‘I told you so’ and I said, ‘You did’.”
