Emmerdale star Georgia Jay reveals she’s given birth to her first child as she shares the baby’s sweet name
Emmerdale star Georgia Jay has revealed she secretly gave birth to her first child in the summer.
The actress, who plays Steph Milligan in the ITV series, announced in June that she said hello to a girl named Nora and shared a photo with her baby on New Year’s Eve.
Georgia announced that she was expecting her first child in June and announced in her post that she gave birth just a few weeks later.
The soap star was immediately flooded with comments from her Emmerdale co-stars, with Beth Cordingly, who plays her on-screen mother Ruby, writing: ‘You’re perfect and so is she. I love you x.”
Laura Norton, who plays Kerry Wyatt, commented: “Congratulations are amazing,” alongside three heart emojis.
Georgia announced her pregnancy on Instagram in June, writing: ‘As you’ve probably guessed, I have some news to share!
Emmerdale star Georgia Jay has revealed she secretly gave birth to her first child over the summer (a photo taken on the soap set during her pregnancy)
‘I know some of you are wondering if you’ve seen a little bump on the screen lately… well, it’s not your imagination… I’m having a baby!
‘We’ve never been this excited and a little nervous at the same time. Thank you for all your love and support.’
Viewers saw Georgia’s character Steph temporarily leave the series in August to coincide with the actress’ maternity leave.
It comes after reports that fellow star Joe Absolom is quitting his role as villain Ray Walters as he exits the series alongside his equally evil on-screen mother. Jaye Griffiths.
The 47-year-old actor, who joined the ITV show earlier this year in one of its darkest storylines yet, is said to have already filmed his final scenes.
Joe’s character, along with his mother, farmer Celia Daniels, was involved in all sorts of nefarious acts, including drug dealing, prostitution, and modern-day slavery.
But despite hope that Ray can shed his evil ways after falling in love with Laurel Thomas (Charlotte Bellamy), he will bid farewell to the village in scenes to air ahead of the show’s massive Corrie crossover.
A source told Sun: ‘The bosses knew they only had Joe for a certain period of time, but they certainly made the most of having someone of his caliber in the village.’
‘He shot his last scenes in November’.
Joe is best known for his role as Matthew Rose from EastEnders, in which the Londoner was accused of the murder of Saskia Duncan.
He starred in the rival BBC series from 1997 to 2000, followed by roles in the TV series Doc Martin, New Tricks and Code O Silence.
Meanwhile, it was reported that 62-year-old leading lady Jaye was filming her final scenes with her character, who is said to have left ‘chaos and secrets’ behind.
A source said: ‘Jaye really loved her time on Emmerdale but knew when she signed up that the shelf life of a character like Celia was limited.
‘He needs to be compensated and that’s what’s going to happen, one way or another.
‘But although Celia is done, her influence and secrets will continue to create chaos long after she is gone.’
Speaking to the media about her departure, Jaye said: ‘I knew this was finite, which makes me very sad because I would like to stay forever but this is such a strong departure.’
The soap star hopes her heartbreaking stories will raise awareness and get people talking about such important issues.
He added: ‘Sometimes when I read the script I think ‘really? Are you going to make me say this?’ Just when you think he’s gone far enough, they’ll take me a little further! So yes, this is terrible.
‘Hopefully maybe the conversations will start to be heard. Maybe every nail file is just… Maybe a question will come to people’s minds.
‘Maybe at every car wash, I don’t know how, as an ordinary person, when you go to the car wash you ask them ‘do you have a passport?’ you say?
‘How do you manage this? How can you help as an ordinary citizen? I asked a police officer and he said ‘I don’t know’.’
Despite playing such a bad character, he received a lot of love and support from his fans.
Jaye said: ‘Folks come up to me on the street and say they love Celia so much and you think ‘yeah, this won’t last long’.
‘This won’t last very long and I want to remind people that this is just a trick, that I’m a genuinely nice person and not a sociopath. This won’t last long I’ll be getting hate mail!’
