Nicola Wheeler, who portrays Nicola King in Emmerdale, has spoken out about her new storyline and its effect on her personal life.
Soap star Nicola Wheeler has spoken candidly about her Emmerdale character’s latest storyline, revealing that it has influenced how she parents her own son in real life.
The actress, who plays Nicola King on the ITV soap, has recently been involved in a plot where she and her on-screen husband Jimmy King (Nick Miles) face the fallout from their adoptive son Carl’s (Charlie Munro Joyce) actions.
Carl was taken into police custody after sharing an indecent image of Clemmie Reed (Mabel Addison), which he had received from someone else and forwarded to his friends.
Appearing on This Morning on Wednesday (15 October), Nicola confessed: “When I first spoke to the producer about this storyline, I didn’t realise that a child sending such images could actually be committing a crime.”
She went on to say: “Carl was sent the image — he didn’t ask for it — but the moment he forwarded it, he was technically sharing indecent images of a child.”
The soap star explained that the storyline made her rethink her 10-year-old son’s internet habits and has strengthened her decision not to give him a smartphone too early.
“My little boy is 10, the same age as Carl,” Nicola told hosts Cat Deeley and Ben Shephard. “He doesn’t have a phone, but so many children his age already do.”
She added: “I’m not a perfect mum — he does have an iPad and of course he scrolls. I’ve only just updated the YouTube settings, for example, because I don’t want him exposed to adult content. The truth is, if you doom-scroll for half an hour, you’re bound to come across adult material.”
Nicola went on to talk about the responsibility parents have when it comes to supervising their children’s online activity, saying: “As parents, we have a duty to keep an eye on what our kids are doing — or perhaps even consider not giving them phones at all.”
Later in the interview, Nicola reflected on her more than twenty years playing Nicola King in Emmerdale, a role she first took on in 2001.
She reminisced about her very first day on set, sharing that she filmed her debut scene with Kate McGregor, who portrayed Emily Kirk in the soap. A clip from that scene was then shown, allowing Nicola to look back fondly on her long-running career on the show.
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