ITV Emmerdale Nicola Wheeler’s mysterious life off-screen – rarely-seen husband and ‘secret’ surgery

Emmerdale’s Nicola King has been at the centre of some of the soap’s biggest storylines over the years – but her real life away from the cameras couldn’t be more different.

Known for her brash, outspoken personality, the TV character has been a controversial one amongst viewers. Earlier this week, fans were quick to slam ‘vile’ Nicola’s mistake, after she resorted to desperate measures amid her daughter Angelica’s bombshell confession about New Year’s Eve.

Behind the scenes, actress Nicola Wheeler lives a very quiet life, far from the dramas of the soap world. She is a devoted mum and wife, lives in Yorkshire, and chooses to keep her other half largely out of the spotlight. But, she has given some rare insights into her family and home over the years – here, we take a look.

Nicola Wheeler first appeared in Coronation Street before she joined Emmerdale in 2001

Rarely-seen husband

Not much is known about Nicola’s offscreen love life, but it is understood that she’s married to a man named Matt. The couple have yet to attend any awards ceremonies or other such showbiz events together, and it’s also unclear how they met or when they got married. It is known, however, that they welcomed a son together back in 2015, with Nicola taking six months maternity leave.

Lancashire-born Nicola announced her pregnancy to fans at the time on social media, tweeting: “Thanks for all your congratulations still got a couple of weeks until arrives. Unless he/she gets impatient.” In April of that year, the official Emmerdale Twitter page confirmed Nicola had given birth in a congratulatory post that read: “BIG congratulations to @nicola_Wheeler and her baby boy, who arrived on Friday 13!”

The 49-year-old has previously praised Matt’s parenting skills in an interview with OK! Magazine, back when their son was still very small. She revealed: “I am really lucky that me and my partner are sharing the childcare. But we have said that the hardest work is looking after the kid all day. […] Coming to work is like a holiday – I can actually come to work and do things like look at the internet, do some shopping, get some yoga in, or just sit and do b***** all.”

Yorkshire home

Although Nicola prefers not to share personal updates from family life on social media, she has offered fans a few glimpses of her beautiful Yorkshire home, which is filled with cosy touches. Festive photos shared on Twitter showed a beautiful white-tiled kitchen with marble countertops, all festooned with adorable decorations and plenty of Christmas treats.

Another pic shows a cast iron fireplace inside a brick alcove, giving the sort of homely feel you’d imagine in a real-life Emmerdale cottage. It’s her back garden that is perhaps the most incredible feature, however, with enough land for Nicola to partake in one of her favourite hobbies – beekeeping.

Keen beekeeper Nicola has previously tweeted: “Just put my honey bees to bed for winter. I mean they’ll all keep buzzing and doing their thing until nature tells them to stay indoors, but I won’t interfere until spring. Really calm hive – not one sting this year and lots of honey. Thanks, girls.”

Secret surgery

Nicola’s health forced her to take some time off from filming for a few months in 2022, and she admitted to This Morning hosts Holly and Phil that she’d undergone a hip replacement. But before she went to hospital, Emmerdale bosses let her know she’d have to film some harrowing scenes upon her return.

“They said ‘What we are going to do is we are going to bring you back and beat you up, is that okay?’,” Nicola joked. “I said ‘Fine, but I can’t throw myself on the floor’, so the stunt double did anything truly physical just because obviously I was still healing.” Nicola was involved in a gang attack storyline at the time.

During an interview with The Sun, she admitted that she’d been scared of filming the car scene after her op. “Bear in mind, I had only just had my hip replaced! I was fully healed, don’t worry, they didn’t drag me in early,” she said. “I probably was miles away [from Matthew Wolfenden], but I kept thinking, ‘What if my foot slips, what if I do actually hit the back of his car?'” Luckily, it all went smoothly and nobody was hurt.

• Emmerdale airs weeknights at 7:30pm on ITV1 and ITVX, with an hour-long episode on Thursdays.