Emmerdale stars Emma Atkins and Lucy Pargeter have opened up about their 20 year friendship outside of the soap.
Their on screen characters Charity Dingle and Chas Dingle are arguably two of Emmerdale's most recognisable faces but when the cameras stop rolling Emma and Lucy couldn't be more different to their on-screen personas.
But one thing that ties them together both on screen and off screen is the notorious Dingle Bond.
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Emma and Lucy have been friends for nearly two decades and feature in each other's lives in more way than one.
The actresses who have a mutual understanding of juggling motherhood and a busy work schedule, jointly manage childcare for their children.
Lucy, 45, has a 16-year-old daughter named Lola and five-year-old twins Betsy and Missy, while Emma, 47, has son named Albert who is seven.
The pair revealed all about how they make things work in an interview with our colleagues over at The Mirror.
As their children go to the same school they often help each other out by taking it in turns to do the school run.
Emma says: “If we can help each other, we will. It just goes without saying when you have a friendship where you work together, spend time together and your kids go to the same school – you pull together.”
The Charity Dingle star adds: "We’re each other’s rock, there’s an innate trust, an authenticity there. We make each other laugh, and we’ve never not enjoyed working together.”
The pair have played cousins on the long running ITV soap for almost 20 years and it’s clear they’re like family in real life, too.
Lucy adds: “When the cameras stop rolling our relationship is exactly the same, we know each other so well, we feel exactly the same age as we were when we first joined. That’s why we’re quite juvenile!”
What fans might not know is that Lucy, originally auditioned for the role of Emma’s character, Charity, before being cast as Chas in 2002.
Charity and Chas recently had a major bust up in the Dales after it was revealed that Charity had bought The Woolpack pub at auction from Chas - the squabble even resulted in a particularly nasty food fight!
But their relationship off screen couldn't be more different, Emma said: "“We’ve never fallen out. There’s a brilliant connection that you can’t put a price on.”
They are always there for one another, which has innately rubbed off on to their children.
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They know who to go to and the girls are always saying, if anything happens, they’ll go and find Albert,” adds Emma.
“Albert will come home and go, ‘I waved at Missy and Betsy today. I saw them playing and I waved and went over.’ That feels so gorgeous to hear that they’re looking out for each other.”
Both Emma and Lucy have similar views when it comes to keeping their family and private life out of the spotlight and both choose not to share details of their children on social media.
“Our privacy is everything,” Emma explains.
Lucy adds: “The young ones have no idea about what I do for a job, and they don’t necessarily need to. As long as I’m providing for them, they don’t need to be a part of that madness.”
