Emmerdale star Roxy Shahidi ‘wept everyday’ while filming harrowing storyline

Emmerdale’s Roxy Shahidi has opened up about a storyline that impacted her a great deal.

Roxy portrayed the role of Leyla Harding in the ITV soap on and off from 2008-2025.

Leyla was the mum of Jacob Gallagher (Joe-Warren Plant). She worked as an events planner at Take a Vow, and was often seen organising weddings in the village.

The character was one of the three women who died in the limo crash disaster that aired in February. After Charity Dingle (Emma Atkins) saw Noah Dingle (Jack Downham) stumbling into the middle of the road, she was forced to swerve the vehicle to prevent hitting him.

The limo crashed on a frozen lake. The residents trapped inside were then forced to carefully work their way across the ice and make it to safety.

During these episodes, viewers also received confirmation Nate Robinson’s body was lurking in the water. It had been placed there by John Sugden (Oliver Farnworth), after he killed Nate in 2024.

Suzy Merton (Martelle Edinborough) died as a result of hitting her head, while Leyla and Amy Wyatt’s (Natalie Ann Jameson) deaths were later confirmed in hospital.

Back in May, Roxy told Metro how she felt to leave the show after 16 years.

‘I’m adjusting. I think it’s equally terrifying and really exciting’, she said.

‘You know when you’re like, stood on the edge of a cliff and you’re like, oh my god, it’s so exciting. But equally, you’re out of that bubble, you’re out of that comfort zone. And there’s also elements that you miss. You miss your friends, you miss your routine, you miss the character.

‘But also I’m 42 now, and I was lucky enough to spend 16 years in a show that I loved. Life is short, and I’m really ready for new adventures for new projects and to see where those things take me.’

Throughout her time in the village, Leyla had many romance storylines, with one of them involving local GP Liam Cavanagh (Jonny McPherson).

Shortly after getting married, Liam and Leyla’s lives were turned upside down when Liam’s young daughter Leanna Cavanagh was murdered by Meena Jutla (Paige Sandhu).

The powerful narrative saw Liam attempt to process the sudden and devastating loss. Leyla also went through her own grief journey as Leanna’s step mum.

For Roxy, it was this storyline in particular that impacted her a lot.

As a mum herself, being at the centre of a conversation about a parent losing their child was certainly incredibly intense.

Speaking on The Lewis Nicholls Show, the star said: ‘I just wept everyday because I think it was just the idea of being a parent and loss, and knowing that there are so many parents out there…he [Jonny McPherson] worked with a lot of charities and spoke to a lot of parents.

‘This kind of raw connection to it, but the realisation that you try and hide away from day to day – there is so much grief, especially for parents. Just being confronted with that day in day out – it is selfish to say because I didn’t experience that, and I’m so lucky.’

‘People going through that and that loss, to portray it, I was just so upset.’

After discussing Leyla’s drug addiction storyline, Roxy reflected on Leanna’s death again. She noted that after everything Leyla and Liam went through in the space of a few years, seeing pictures of Leanna in their house was difficult.

‘Even just being in the house with him. When we kind of started to move on from that being the primary focus of the scenes, all the pictures were everywhere. Even though it was fictional, I’d be reminded of this huge loss.’

Leanna’s killer Meena was also responsible for killing Ben Tucker and Andrea Tate. The crazed character, who worked as a nurse, also took advantage of Liam as he grieved for his daughter.

Meena was sent to prison in 2022 for these murders, as well as a long list of other crimes.

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