17 July 2023 , 14:22
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Emmerdale's Samantha Giles is reportedly set to say goodbye to the ITV soap once again.
The actress is said to be quitting her role as Bernice Blackstock more than 25 years since hitting our screens for the first time. Yet it isn't the first time Samantha has left the village, so it might not be her last.
Bernice will depart the show later this year in a storyline not yet confirmed, according to reports. She has already had four stints on the show and three exits since her arrival in 1998.
We take a look at Samantha's life away from the soap including her spiritual beliefs and how she cast a spell on her husband.
Supernatural beliefs
Away from Emmerdale, Samantha is a white witch. She got interested in Wicca, a pagan religion, after her mum taught her how to read palms as a youngster.
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Samantha started creating spells for her family and friends, and sells them on her website. They include incantations for finding a new job, beating exam stress and mending a broken heart.
Samantha has been open about her beliefsOne of her happy clients is This Morning soap expert Sharon Marshall, who had six failed rounds of IVF, but became a mum to daughter Betsey in 2018 after trying out one of Samantha’s spells.
Samantha says that since lockdown, more people have become interested in witchcraft and visited her site. She said at the time: “Because life is so hard at the moment, financially and mentally, for everybody, people are turning to alternative therapies, and my spell kits are one of those things. They are more like self-help.
“It’s all about belief, if you believe something will happen you can manifest it by bringing your belief and putting it out there, and letting it go into the universe. I believe in being positive in everything I do and passing those thoughts to others.”
Putting a spell on her husband
And it seems Samantha's spells have worked in her own personal life, too. She claims to have met her production manager husband, Sean Pritchard, after casting a love spell. Speaking to OK! in 2020, she said: “I met him three months after the spell.
The actress put a spell on her husband Sean (Twitter/@sammeegiles)
She says her home life is 'quite boring' (Getty Images)“It's about things being aligned. Sometimes people say to me, 'I put this thought out there and it didn't work!' But sometimes things aren't in the right place so you have to let them go until it's time.“
Samantha elaborated on the spell to The Mirror, claiming she uses candles and crystals to facilitate spells and writes down exactly what she wants. “I wrote down exactly what I was after. Then I met Sean and he was exactly what I had written.
“It's as if he appeared by magic! You have to be very specific about what you're looking for, and one thing I forgot to put down was for him to be older than me. I put taller, as well as details about his personality and morality.“
She added: “Then when I met Sean and we started seeing each other, he was two-and-a-half years younger than me. I thought, 'This feels a bit weird', but it didn't take me long to get over it.“
The soap star married Sean in 2010, but her husband isn't a believer in her spells and thinks it's “nonsense“ – though she insists it's not “bonkers“. Samantha also believes she and Sean met in a past life – but their genders were reversed.
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She discussed this on the Wonderbirds YouTube show, claiming that in a past life she was a man working on a fairground and “looked like [her] husband“.
“I had black curly hair and the woman that I was marrying, if you like, looked like me now,“ she explained. “So when I met my husband, I had this feeling of meeting him when I saw him – 'I know you, I've met you before.' So it was almost as if we'd looked like each other in another life.“
Rocky relationship with soap
Samantha first appeared as Bernice in 1998 until 2002. In her first stint Bernice went on to marry vicar Ashley Thomas and had their daughter Gabby. Bernice memorably cheated on Ashley with her sister Nicola's fiancé Carlos, ultimately culminating with her leaving Emmerdale in 2004.
After leaving Emmerdale, Samantha continued to work in the soap world, but this time in Hollyoaks. She played Valerie Holden from 2008 until 2010. The actress also had roles in Doctors, Dangerfield and Midnight Man.
The redhead made a comeback to the Dales in 2012 as her character later opened a salon, had romances with Andy Sugden and Lawrence White and almost married Dr Liam Cavanagh before departing the show once more in 2019.
The star took to Twitter to reveal she would be exiting the Dales to pursue new opportunities. She said: "After 7 fabulous years I am shortly to be hanging up Bernice’s aprons and leaving the dales to pursue other creative projects.
"I will miss all the friends I’ve made on the show, but I’m very excited to be moving on to pastures new." Samantha left the soap in order to write a book.
Samantha has released two books, the first called Rosemary and the Witches of Pendle Hill in 2020 and a second called Rosemary and the Book of the Dead the following year.
Emmerdale fans were delighted when she returned as Bernice in May 2021, and since then she has been the focus of popular storylines, such as the love triangle with a former flame.
Bernice's latest return came amid Liam's newfound love with Leyla Harding. A source has since said to The Sun: "Bernice Blackstock has been in and out of Emmerdale village more than they change the barrels at The Woolpack.
"She’s always welcomed back with open arms by ITV and fans alike, but it’s now becoming a bit of a running joke. It wouldn’t pay to bet on whether Samantha will one day be back, but for now she will leave the soap later this year."