Jaye Griffiths, who plays the devious Celia Daniels on the ITV soap, has opened up for the first time about her own experience of being in a relationship with a violent abuser
20:30, 02 Oct 2025Updated 20:47, 02 Oct 2025
Jaye Griffiths bravely opens up about the horrors she experienced at the hands of her violent ex(Image: Getty Images)
In shocking scenes tonight (Wednesday), Emmerdale farmer Celia Daniels was exposed as the mastermind behind the drugs gang terrorising the village. Viewers have already witnessed Celia’s cruel and manipulative side, but last night it emerged that she is far more dangerous than anyone could have imagined, as she violently slapped teenager April Windsor before threatening her life.
Actress Jaye Griffiths, who plays Celia, is revelling in the role of violent gang boss, yet the experiences of her tough-talking character could not be more removed from her own. For in a moving new interview, she shares that the most powerful role of her life has been that of survivor, having spent five years in an abusive relationship marked by gaslighting, violence and control.
“I couldn’t tell anybody because I was so ashamed. I disappeared for about five years. You would now use the term gaslight – but I couldn’t make a decision,” Jaye tells Kaye Adams on her How to be 60 podcast. “I didn’t know if what I thought was real was real, because he would constantly tell me I was wrong and the day after he hit me, I would get jewellery.
READ MORE: Grieving Emmerdale star wears necklace made of dead dog’s chest hair
Jaye Griffiths, who joined Emmerdale in May this year as Celia, reveals for the first time the horrors she encountered at the hands of her violent ex
“I lived in this twilight existence and I had to start again. I had to find out that someone walking behind you didn’t mean you were going to get clobbered, that people sometimes said truthful things. But that took a very long time. When I finally went to the police they said on average a woman is hit 37 times before she tells anyone. All I did was lie – ‘no, I’m fine thanks, I’m fine.’ That’s exhausting.”
Jaye, who joined Emmerdale earlier this year, has spent her career playing formidable tough-talking women, in shows including Casualty, Doctor Who, Silent Witness and The Bill. But away from the screen she found herself unable to make the slightest decision. “If I put the heating on in the house there could be consequences to that – ‘you f*****g waste my money.’ So, I wouldn’t put it on,” she recalls.
“If I didn’t put it on and the house was cold, there’d be consequences to that, so you live in a world of – what should I do? what’s for the best?”
When the relationship finally ended, Jaye said she had to re-build her life, step by step. In the brave and frank How to be 60 interview she explains: “You start with little things. I like tea, but no milk, I like coffee black, I do not like bread. I am allowed to change my mind and I’m going to have a sandwich. I want a herbal tea, because I can. Those small choices are your foundation, because you can decide without consequence.
“And then time passes and you get stronger. I look back now and I think: f**k.’ People say to me: ‘why didn’t you just leave?’ and I want to stab them in the eye and go: ‘where? And tell who? And do what?’”
Jaye says recovering from the abuse she suffered took years(Image: ITV)
Jaye, 62, is now happily married. The couple live in Hertfordshire and have been together for over 20 years, but Jaye says her previous relationship initially haunted her. “It took years for me to truly believe that this was a nice guy,” she tells Kaye Adams. “I always knew he was a nice guy, but was that enough?
“The other one was nice out in the world. In private, are you more important than their ego? That’s where it counts. Not out at a do. We had rules – you couldn’t come up behind me, you couldn’t touch my neck. That took three or four years for that to stop. Now, if someone touches my neck, I don’t freak out, so that’s good. I don’t like it, but I don’t freak out.
“Home is now safe, as it should always have been; that’s what everybody deserves. Our house is peaceful, aside from a nutty Italian greyhound. Our house is so safe and my life is gentle; there’s no drama. He doesn’t do big romantic gestures – he doesn’t know what they mean – but he does bring a cup of tea, he does cuddle the dogs, he does make dinner every single night. He does things quietly and he’s very funny, so my life is lovely and I’m lucky. Not everybody has that.”
Jaye joined Emmerdale in June as fearsome farmer Celia Daniels. Cold and selfish, she was not a woman to be crossed. But last night’s hour-long episode revealed the full extent of her wickedness. For months drugs dealer Ray Walters (Joe Absolom) has been forcing vulnerable youngsters April Windsor (Amelia Flanagan) and Dylan Penders (Fred Kettle) into selling drugs.
But while tough-talking Ray has previously appeared to be in charge of the operation, last night he was seen reduced to a cowering wreck in front of Celia – who it emerges is his mum and the real head of the operation.
Jaye plays Celia, who this week is exposed as the manipulative drugs kingpin on Emmerdale
Meanwhile, trapped in county lines drug dealing, April and Dylan are left with no way out. Jaye says: “At last the audience have seen the link between her and Ray and the fact she is the mastermind behind it all. There is lots more drama to come. The audience will now be fearing how trapped these kids are as it’s very clear Celia and Ray are not beginners at this.”
Jaye is revelling in playing a character so evil that even the Emmerdale crew were wary of getting close to her when she filmed the shocking scene where she slaps April. “I tower over her and slap her round the chops because she doesn’t do as she’s told,” Jaye recalls. “When we did the rehearsal, literally the crew took a step back. I was like: ‘OK, it’s pretend. I haven’t touched her; I’m nowhere near her face.”
During the How to be 60 interview, Jaye, whose dad was born in Barbados, opened up on the shocking racist abuse she experienced as a child growing up in London. “My mum’s white so, walking hand in hand, people spitting at us, people shouting things. It was incredibly common in London in the 70s,” she said.
“It was just expected grief. My mum would always take two sets of clothing, so if we went to the seaside we’d come back in pristine clothes, so that no-one could say we looked dirty. That effort required to just navigate the tube train, that’s what gets into your marrow.”
Jaye, who has just turned 62, said she hoped that more roles like Celia would come her way in the future. She explained: “When I got to 60, I didn’t work for eight months; I became invisible. Fifties is still sexy. Sixties isn’t sexy. We need to sex up 60. Because we’re perceived now as dried, but actually, we’re not.
“I would like to do more parts like Celia, where she actually does s**t, not sits in an office talking about what other people do. I want to be in fights. I want to hit the stuntman and he flies across the room, because I can still do that.
“I run marathons. So stop treating me like I’m fragile, because I’m not. I’m probably fitter than you, I’ve probably got a better VO2 max than you, certainly got a better resting heart rate than you, so shut your face.”
The drama on Emmerdale continues Friday at 7:30pm on ITV1 and STV, or from 7am on ITVX and STV Player
Kaye Adams: How to be 60 is available on all podcast providers
If you believe you could be a victim of domestic abuse, call Refuge for free advice on 0808 2000 247, open 24 hours a day, seven days a week.
READ MORE: Emmerdale fans left in shock as villain ‘spotted’ in Coronation Street