Emmerdale’s Samantha Giles used Pagan witchcraft to find a husband following the breakdown of a “disastrous” relationship.
The actress, who recently reprised her role as Bernice Blackstock in the ITV soap, confessed she turned to spells and crystals after a messy split forced her to rethink what she wanted from any future partner.
“I’d come out of a disastrous relationship and didn’t want to be messing about with any waste-of-space boyfriends,” Samantha told Inside Soap.
“I used Pagan witchcraft and wrote down exactly what I was after and used candles and crystals.”
However, the spell worked, and Samantha met production manager Sean Pritchard, with the couple tying the knot in 2010.
Samantha, who shares daughters Evelyn, 13, and Olivia, 9, with husband Sean, is a practising white witch, and over the Covid-19 lockdown, she decided to do angel card readings online.
"About once every week or so, I picked out the cards for people and read the meaning of it for them,” she said last year.
"So many people said it gave them a bit of hope, so it was really nice for me to do that."
The actress was previously married to Nick Moore, who she wed in 2000.
Samantha has appeared as feisty Bernice on Emmerdale since 1998, and in September 2019, she announced she was departing the show to pursue other creative projects.
Bernice‘s final scenes aired in November 2019, as the iconic former barmaid emigrated to Australia with her teenage daughter.
During her time away, the actress, 49, wrote two children's books – Rosemary and the Witches of Pendle Hill, and Rosemary and the Book of the Dead – and was overjoyed when producers asked her to return in April this year.
Now, Bernice is looking to stir up trouble with her surprise return to the village, and is on a mission to split up ex Liam and his new fiancee Leyla.
“As far as Bernice is concerned, (Liam) should be falling at her feet. She can’t believe he’s getting married to Leyla – how dare he?” Samantha teased.
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