“People only know half the truth…” — A TV legend opens up about leaving Emmerdale, and her comments about Patsy Kensit are raising eyebrows
Linda Lusardi was lauded as one of the most exciting additions to soapland when it was announced that she’d be joining Emmerdale as Carrie Nicholls back in 2007.
Carrie was the mother of Home Farm’s recently-murdered top dog, Tom King’s (Kenneth Farrington) illegitimate daughter, Scarlett (Kelsey-Beth Crossley).
She arrived, set to cause even more trouble for the insidious King clan who presided over the village from the big house.
Unfortunately, her tenure in the village was incredibly short-lived, and after the revelation that she was Lexi Nicholls’ (Sally Oliver) mother and not sister as Lexi’d been led to believe, she abandoned the toxic King tribe and jetted away for a fresh start.
But just why was Linda’s dabble in soap so short?
According to her, speaking on the Lewis Nicholls Life Stories podcast, it was a rule change that’d been implemented after the departure of Patsy Kensit, who’d left the soap a year before after a stint as the deliciously devilish Sadie King.
With a family back in London, Linda wanted to return home at weekends to be with them and as her contract came up for renegotiation, she tried to ensure she’d be allowed to have the weekends off, particularly after her son ‘had fallen over at school and cut his chin’ and she’d not been there to take care of him.
Linda felt unable to continue to be apart from her family and the ability to take weekends off became the ‘make or break’ key to the ongoing negotiations.
Unfortunately, soap bosses refused to acquiesce, and Linda revealed: ‘I just thought I can’t do this anymore.’
‘It’s Patsy Kensit’s fault,’ she continued.
‘Because they’d given her the weekends off because of the same reason, because she lived in London and she’s got kids and it caused so much animosity between the rest of the cast that they said never again.
‘When she left, they said, we won’t ever do that again.’
Linda had soap history prior to Emmerdale, having appeared in Brookside and Hollyoaks previously.
She went on to reminisce over her lauded modelling career, while admitting that if she’d discovered acting earlier, she may have made the jump earlier.
‘I was young and enjoying life and it was a very different time. I was everywhere. It was a great career and I am where I am now because of it.
‘I found acting late in life, though, and I may have made a career from it if I’d come to it earlier. I did lots of work with my clothes on as well, mind, but I know that everyone knows me for what went in the papers.’
Despite being known for her racy early work, she absolutely ruled out a career on OnlyFans, a subscription service that many adult content creators have used.
‘It’s not something I would entertain. I know that a lot of people are making a lot of money, but it just feels weird to me.
‘Because it isn’t ‘only’ for the fans, is it? People can screenshot or film you and then it’s out there to haunt you for the rest of your life.
‘What if your life moves in a different direction? I think sometimes the girls haven’t thought about when they have children, who might well see their mother in a situation she later regrets.
