Emmerdale’s Michelle Hardwick reveals VERY different career plans before landing soap role

EMMERDALE'S Michelle Hardwick has revealed her VERY different career plans before landing her soap role.

The 46-year-old has played Vanessa Woodfield in the ITV soap since October 2012.

Before that, she played Lizzie Hopkirk in the ITV drama series The Royal, however, Michelle admits she had thought about other jobs at times in her career.

Speaking exclusively to The Sun's TV Mag, she said: "Because I’ve been professional now for 30 years next year, I never actually back then thought of anything else to do.

"But that has crossed my mind since and without a shadow of a doubt I think I’d have joined the police. Everyone is always really shocked with that."

She continued: "I must admit, when The Royal finished and I’ve never sort of luckily been out of work, but there was three months where nothing was really happening I did look into it online but then I got a theatre job, then Hollyoaks for a few eps, then I got Emmerdale, so I didn’t actually go through with it but I did look into it online.

"I think I want to do it so that when people are driving really fast like idiots on the road you can pull them up and just get the badge out and tell them to slow down."

Michelle is married to Emmerdale producer Kate Brooks, with the women tying the knot in September 2019 in Memphis, USA.

The star then took a break from Emmerdale after giving birth to their first child, son Teddy, in October 2020.

Michelle returned to Emmerdale in December last year, and told TV Mag that when she's not filming she likes to make the most of family time.

She said: "My ideal weekend is always family oriented. So it would be myself, Kate, Teddy and our little dog Fred.

"The ideal place would just be going away for the weekend, maybe to the lakes or the Yorkshire Dales, getting a little cottage somewhere and going on gorgeous walks, eating lovely food and just having that family time together.

"It’s so important, especially when you’ve been working all week and you just have that quality time together.

"Even if that’s just at home that’s fine but my ideal weekend would just be somewhere with that little bit of scenery, like I say, the lakes, Lake Windermere or the Yorkshire Dales."

TV Mag is available for free every Saturday, only in The Sun.