Charlotte Bellamy shares a lot of similarities with Laurel Thomas - and her character was even a part of her wedding day.
The popular 48-year-old actress, who has been part of the cast for nearly two decades, has a quirky fashion sense which mirrors Laurel so much that she get recognised on the street all the time.
She even got pregnant at exactly the same time as Laurel in 2006 completely by chance, with Charlotte admitting: "You couldn't make it up."
However, it isn't the first soap role the actress has had as she played religious fanatic Sue Taylor in EastEnders in 1997, as well as starring in A touch of Frost and The Broker's Man.
The award-winning Emmerdale star tends to clear steer of social media but does occasionally reveals details of her life away from the cameras.
Charlotte has been with her childhood sweetheart, company director Mungo Denison, since she was 18-years and they have three kids together.
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Charlotte is clearly very good at keeping secrets as she didn't let slip she was married for almost three years.
It was only revealed she married Mungo in 2015, but they had tied the knot three years earlier in a low-key ceremony watched only by their kids and mums.
They only told the kids on the morning of the ceremony then strolled down the street together to their local register office.
"We didn’t invite anyone or tell anyone, we just did it and it was perfect. We sat there at breakfast and said to the kids, ‘We’re getting married today’ and they were like, ‘What?’ It was hilarious," she told the Sunday Mirror in 2015.
They didn't spend much time planning and Charlotte's wedding dress was a striped cocktail number with a big bow on the front which cost a bargain £60 from a shop in Notting Hill.
To give the occasion the Emmerdale feel, Charlotte walked down the aisle with a pair of Laurel's shoes which she stole from the set.
She continued: "I didn’t have any navy shoes to go with it so I borrowed a pair of Laurel’s from work. I’ve never told anyone that so I hope I don’t get in to trouble!
"We did it on a random Thursday in May 2012. It was a beautiful sunny day. There was no fuss and no stress, it was great."
Their closest friends were shocked when they got a message revealing the couple had got married in secret earlier in the day, but were very fond of the idea.
"For some people a big wedding is the dream and of course that’s great but it wasn’t really our style. We’re quite unconventional," said the actress.
"I texted my friends at the end of the day and just said, ‘Me and Mungo got married’ and they were stunned.
"They just laughed, they thought we were bonkers but they loved it. The weird thing is so many people have said to us, ‘I wish we’d done that’. A simple ceremony, a few days away, then back to real life."
Charlotte is mum to two boys, Herbie and Sunnie, and a daughter called Teddie.
The only times she has left Emmerdale since joining in 2002 have been to go on maternity leave - and once it even coincided with Laurel's own pregnancy.
Charlotte had her first child in 2004 and didn't have to hide her pregnancy while filming as she was briefly written out of the soap.
Then she had her second son two years later and had no idea the writers were setting up her character to also be pregnant, then in 2009 she went on maternity leave again to have her daughter.
Fortunately none of her birthing experiences were as bad as Laurel's, who was on all floors having her baby in the church.
The actress was actually eight months pregnant in real life and gave birth just three weeks later.
"The hardest part was crawling around on the floor. And I’m fit! But at that last stage, even getting up is difficult and I did that over and over again during three night shoots," she said in 2015.
Charlotte's kids "couldn't care less" about her being famous but they do get asked about their mum at school as a lot of the kids watch Emmerdale.
"Women feel they have to be super-mum, but my husband, Mungo is a great help. I have a nanny too, but it’s still hectic," she explained.
"There are some mums at school who don’t work and everything is pristine because they have the time. But I don’t feel guilty. I work long hours, and as long as they get to school and they’re happy, that’s all that matters."
The hard-working mum does make time to go out with her husband but has admitted she prefers to unwind at home.
"We have the opportunity to go to so many fancy functions, but we just don’t," she admitted. "We know it’s important to have dates, but we normally try to get out of dinner parties and things.
"My perfect night would be kids in bed, a meal with Mungo at home, bath, then bed with an electric blanket. I let the young ’uns go to the events, I’m not technically a young one any more."
*Emmerdale airs tonight on ITV at 7pm
