Emmerdale star Michelle Hardwick hounded by ‘vile, rancid’ homophobic trolls
Emmerdale star Kate Hardwick with her wife, producer Kate Brooks, on their wedding day (Instagram/@missmichellehardwick)
Emmerdale star Michelle Hardwick has been “overwhelmed” with support after sharing some of the vile homophobic abuse she gets from trolls online.
The actor, 45, plays Vanessa Woodfield in the long-running soap and is happily married to the show’s producer, Kate Brooks, 42.
On Saturday (29 August) she posted a string of homophobic messages she’d received on Instagram, challenging the troll to reveal their identity.
“Come on, show us who you really are… I dare you!” she wrote.
Come on, show us who you really are… I dare you! pic.twitter.com/0x1bsKyFZ1
— Michelle Hardwick (@ChelleHardwick) August 28, 2021
Her wife chimed in: “Hi ‘Michael’, the original Prisoner Cell Block H called from 1985 – they’d really like their insults back. Thanks a mill.”
Furious fans rose to their defence, along with Emmerdale co-stars Lisa Riley and Laura Norton.
“This rages me beyond words… toxic, vile, rancid… What are they hoping to gain?? Other than being loathed,” Riley tweeted. “In today’s world, this is just not acceptable at all!”
“Vile bile. Coward. Boils my blood,” Norton agreed.
This rages me beyond words….toxic, vile, rancid…..what are they hoping to gain?? Other than being LOATHED ????? in today’s world, this is just not acceptable at all!!!
— LISA RILEY (@Reallisariley) August 29, 2021
Vile bile. Coward. Boils my blood. Love you. X
— Laura Norton (@lawrencenotrin) August 29, 2021
Hours later Woodfield returned to social media to find a flood of love and support.
“Overwhelmed by all your beautiful supportive messages,” she said. “I honestly don’t take it to heart, I just like to highlight it every so often.
“Thank you to every single person who took the time to message me whether I know you personally or not. I promise I’ll read them all.”
The Emmerdale star took a break from social media earlier this year after reading a horrific comment that was left on a picture of her with wife and their son Teddy.
She recently opened up about one trolling incident that was so bad she had to get the police involved.
“I tell myself that I think they’re bored, they’re not that malicious,” Hardwick said at Silver Pride.
“I always think to myself, it could be your bank manager, it could be the person who works at your local florist. It’s probably not, but it could be. That is the thing, nobody knows.
“A couple of years ago it was that bad that the police had to be involved. [The troll] just wanted me to die and things like that. They didn’t mention because I was gay or anything like that. But the police were fantastic.”
