Emmerdale Rhona star Zoë Henry almost lost soap role to co-star’s real wife

In 2001, Emmerdale’s Zo Henry made her acting debut as Rhona Goskirk, and she has remained a staple of the ensemble ever since.

The ITV soap’s Monday, April 10 episode featured a significant choice for the actress, 49, who previously acknowledged that things could have gone quite differently because she nearly didn’t get the part.

Zoe said that she was competing against Joanne Mitchell, the wife of Paddy Kirk actor Dominic Brunt.

Joanne as Marlon’s love interest, according to the soap star, would be “strange,” but her superiors intervened and gave her the job.

Within Soap, she stated: “I’ll share with you a fascinating information. The contestant I faced at the audition [for Rhona] was Joanne Mitchell, Dominic’s wife. But, I believe that since Paddy and Marlon are best friends on the show, they felt that it would be strange.”

Joanne didn’t completely miss out, though; she has appeared in four different roles in Emmerdale.

The 51-year-old made her soap opera debut in 2003, appearing in two episodes as DS Karen Barnborough.

Before winning her most famous role as Liv Flaherty’s mother, Sandra, she had had little roles as Midwife Yeo and Susan Davies.

Joanne was cast in the role when Sandra was reintroduced in 2016, and she continued to play the part in 2021 and 2022.

Rhona was shocked last week when her ex-husband, Gus Malcolm, showed up in the community.

Gus then sprung a bombshell on Rhona, asking whether he could utilize her frozen embryos so he could have a child with his new wife, Lucy. But this was only the beginning.

In the episode that aired on Monday, Gus showed up at the Woolpack with Lucy as Rhona tried to eat dinner with the family, which prompted Mary to chastise him for what he was asking of her daughter.

Yet when Rhona approved the use of her embryos by her ex-husband and his new wife, everyone in the situation was left completely flabbergasted.