Emmerdale actress Jaye Griffiths has shared for the first time how she endured a five-year abusive relationship that left her isolated, terrified, and ashamed to speak out.
“I couldn’t tell anybody because I was so ashamed,” Jaye said. “I disappeared for about five years. You would now use the term ‘gaslight’, but back then I didn’t even have the words. I couldn’t make a decision. I didn’t know if what I thought was real was real.”
The actress described the cruel psychological games her abuser played — from punishing her over simple household decisions to “buying jewellery the day after he hit me.” “If I turned the heating on, he’d shout that I was wasting his money. If I didn’t, he’d be angry because the house was cold. I lived in constant fear,” she said.
When she finally escaped the relationship, Jaye had to rebuild her sense of safety from scratch. “I had to learn that someone walking behind you didn’t mean you were about to be hit. That took a very long time.”
She also recalled what police told her when she finally reported the abuse: “On average, a woman is hit 37 times before she tells anyone. All I did was lie – ‘I’m fine, thanks, I’m fine’. It’s exhausting.”
Now happily married and living in Hertfordshire with her long-term partner, Jaye says she had to “start small” to reclaim her autonomy. “I like tea with no milk, coffee black. I can decide what I want to eat. Those small choices are the foundation. Over time, you get stronger,” she said.
Reflecting on how people often ask why she didn’t just leave, Jaye admitted, “I want to stab them in the eye and say, ‘Where? Tell who? Do what?’”
Her revelation comes as her Emmerdale character, Celia Daniels, is exposed as the mastermind behind a village drug gang — a dark and complex role that has ironically forced her to revisit painful parts of her past. “She’s very different to anyone I’ve played before,” Jaye said when she joined the soap earlier this year.
Having worked in television for over three decades, Jaye Griffiths’ story is now one of strength, survival, and self-discovery after years of silence.
