{"id":405511,"date":"2026-04-18T18:27:15","date_gmt":"2026-04-18T18:27:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/405511\/"},"modified":"2026-04-18T18:27:15","modified_gmt":"2026-04-18T18:27:15","slug":"emmerdale-star-reacts-as-matthew-wolfenden-joins-rival-soap","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/405511\/","title":{"rendered":"Emmerdale star reacts as Matthew Wolfenden joins rival soap"},"content":{"rendered":"

Emmerdale<\/a> star Joe-Warren Plant has reacted to his former co-star Matthew Wolfenden making his debut in fellow soap Hollyoaks<\/a> this week. Plant plays Jacob Sugden in the ITV soap, while Wolfenden played on-screen father figure David Metcalfe. <\/p>\n

As of a few days ago, though, Wolfenden is playing Jonah Keane in the Channel 4 soap, and his new stint has already got off to a highly-dramatic start<\/a>. And even though he is now working on a rival show, Plant is more than excited for his former co-star.<\/p>\n

“Oh I’m absolutely over the moon for him, honestly”, Plant said.<\/p>\n

\"emmerdale<\/p>\n

ITV<\/p>\n

Related: Best streaming services UK 2026 \u2013 including Disney+, Netflix, iPlayer and Apple TV<\/a> <\/p>\n

“I’ve said it many, many times before but I have so much love for Matthew. He’s done a little bit of panto and a West End show, so it’s nice to see him back on our TV screens again, doing what he does best.”<\/p>\n

Wolfenden previously said about his Emmerdale departure<\/a> that it was down to him landing a role in the stage version of Elf, and being offered a choice.<\/p>\n

“They said ‘if we set a precedence to let you out for three months to do that we’ve got to let other people out too.’ And I absolutely understood that,” he said. “My contract was coming to an end and I had this big decision to make, do I leave an 18-year job to do an eight-week show?”<\/p>\n

“I was 43 at the time, and I thought, ‘If I don\u2019t do it now then I\u2019ll never do it.’ I absolutely adored [Emmerdale] and [my decision] had nothing to do with the fact that I wasn’t enjoying it anymore, it was just that I wanted to go out and spread my wings.”<\/p>\n

\"matthew<\/p>\n

Lime Pictures<\/p>\n

Related: Emmerdale stars explain why Dr Todd is cruelly targeting Jacob<\/a><\/p>\n

ITV’s other soap Coronation Street<\/a> is currently undertaking a similar story, one that Plant was a major part of almost a decade ago \u2013 which was referenced in Emmerdale itself this week<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Speaking about Corrie’s Will and Megan<\/a> storyline, Plant said: “I haven’t seen too much of it recently, but I have great faith in the fact that they’re doing an amazing job and also raising awareness for such important topics.<\/p>\n

“I can’t stress how important it is for people to be having these conversations, so I’ll have to tune in and see how they do it.”<\/p>\n

For exclusive soap star interviews, gossip, spoilers and theories every week, don’t miss the Soap Scoop podcast<\/a> from Inside Soap magazine. The latest episode<\/a> delves into next week\u2019s soap spoilers for EastEnders, Coronation Street and Emmerdale – as Carla and Lisa get married and Charity goes into labour.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Emmerdale star Joe-Warren Plant has reacted to his former co-star Matthew Wolfenden making his debut in fellow soap…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":405512,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[29],"tags":[131124,1105,178535,1107,93,61,60,1135,178534,131123,282],"class_list":{"0":"post-405511","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-tv","8":"tag-collection-latest-news","9":"tag-content-type-news","10":"tag-contentid-006686f6-726d-4af4-a763-bb457c5fc091","11":"tag-displaytype-standard-article","12":"tag-entertainment","13":"tag-ie","14":"tag-ireland","15":"tag-locale-gb","16":"tag-shorttitle-emmerdale-star-reacts-as-matthew-wolfenden-joins-rival-soap","17":"tag-subsection-emmerdale","18":"tag-tv"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/405511","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=405511"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/405511\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/405512"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=405511"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=405511"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=405511"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}