Tracy Metcalfe recently made a welcome, yet brief, return to the Emmerdale village. The character, played by Amy Walsh, was written back into the ITV soap during her maternity leave so she could be part of its 50th anniversary which saw a windstorm cause death and destruction.
The character returned to the ITV soap's Yorkshire village with some news for her ex, Nate Robinson. The couple split earlier this year when Tracy, played by Amy Walsh, left the village for a new job with their daughter Frankie in tow, after discovering Nate had been unfaithful.
However, she appeared surprised to walk in on her half-dressed ex with his new love interest Naomi. They have since been spending precious family time together and fans were left complaining when one thing lead to another. Tracy later told Nate the truth, that she was engaged to her new man.
READ MORE: Furious ITV Emmerdale fans wonder if character has 'been possessed' as they demand 'get rid'
Despite planning to leave and go back to her new life in Nottingham, Tracy had a change of heart and went to tell Nate that she wanted to make another go of their relationship. Heading to the hospital where Nate was being checked over after being trampled by a herd of cows, Tracy found Nate committing to his relationship with Naomi and so she decided to spare sharing her real feelings and left the village.
Away from Emmerdale, however, Amy's love life is a lot more straightforward. The actress, who joined the ITV soap in 2014, is loved-up with former EastEnder actor Toby Alexander-Smith. Toby, 31, who is best known for playing villain Gray Atkins in the BBC One soap, proposed to Amy, 34, whilst on holiday in Ibiza earlier this year.
Sharing the news with their followers on Instagram, Amy posted a series of pictures beaming alongside her fiancé with the caption 'Before. During. After,' with a love heart and ring emoji. The actress showed off the romantic setting where Toby popped the question, which was a tropical restaurant beside the sea.
Another photo showed the pair appear to have had a meal and cocktails before the actor got down on one knee, and in another picture Amy flashed her stunning ring. Toby also shared his own Instagram post revealing the news alongside the caption 'So this happened…' with a ring, praying and love heart emoji.
The engagement came eight months after the couple welcomed their first child. T he soap stars welcomed their little girl into the world during the festive period last year. Her arrival came a year after Amy and Toby first went public with their relationship at Christmas 2020 when they were pictured on the red carpet at the opening night of A Christmas Carol in London.
In February, Amy and Toby confirmed they had named their daughter Bonnie Mae Smith. Explaining their choice, Toby told OK: "We'd go on walks around the lake where Amy used to live in Leeds during lockdown and talk about names. Bonnie was one that came up really early, even before Amy was pregnant."
Amy added to the publication: "Whenever we hypothetically talked about our family, we always said “our little Bonnie”. When she came, she couldn’t have been more of a Bonnie." New mum Amy, who was due on Christmas Eve, said there was a couple of weeks of 'drama' before their bab's birth after having Covid earlier in December.
And the birth wasn't quite as the couple planned. Amy tested positive for Group B strep - an infection which we carry as adults but with pregnancy, it can affect the baby if you've got it at the time of labour - meaning Amy had to be induced due to the risk of infection being higher. Bonnie Mae eventually arrived on December 27, making the labour 22 hours 'from start to finish', Amy said, which also included having to have two epidurals.
Amy's happy ever after came after she endured heartache from her previous relationship. Amy was said to be left heartbroken after her engagement with musical theatre star Bradley Jaden abruptly ended. But a 'twist of fate' led to her meeting Toby. The pair met in the audience of Strictly Come Dancing back in 2019 when Amy was supporting Emmerdale co-star Kelvin Fletcher and Toby was cheering on co-star Emma Barton.
"The twists of fate that came into play to make us meet are crazy," Amy told OK! Magazine. "Jamie Laing was supposed to be in it that year but he broke his ankle so Kelvin Fletcher replaced him, and Toby wasn’t even supposed to be in the audience that week. It only came out when we spoke to each other and we put two and two together and were like, 'So you do that and I do that.' We didn’t even say the words Emmerdale or EastEnders."
As well as that, the couple didn't even know they were both appearing in rival soaps when they met. "After the show someone sent me a screenshot of us in the audience and I sent it to my best friend and joked, 'Me and my future husband,' just thinking it was going to be a date," Amy said. "But after our first date, I was like, 'This is it!'."
The couple found themselves speeding up their romance after country went into lockdown four months after they met. They kept up a long-distance relationship at first before taking the plunge and moving in together. And their pregnancy later came as a shock despite trying for a baby as they thought it'd be a lengthy process after Amy was diagnosed with Polycystic Ovaries when she was 20. But within two months Amy was pregnant.
And now a happy family-of-three, the couple are no short of support including from Amy's famous sisters. Amy had three siblings, Sally, Kimberley and brother Adam. Her sister Sally also starred in Emmerdale as Marlon Dingle's troublemaker girlfriend Lyn Hutchinson from 1997 to 2000 at the age of 18. She was in the village for three years until 2000, before leaving shortly after her character discovered her enemy Kelly's affair with her half-brother Scott Windsor.
Sally has since appeared in both EastEnders and Coronation Street. Her most recent role in 2019 was on Corrie which saw her play a midwife as Sinead Osbourne - need Tinker - welcomed her son, Bertie, before her tragic death from cancer.
Kimberley Walsh, meanwhile, is known for being in one of the UK's biggest-ever girl bands, Girls Aloud. The 40-year-old rose to fame in late 2002 when she auditioned for the reality series Popstars: The Rivals on ITV. She subsequently won a place as a member of the girl group and the rest, as they say, is history as Girls Aloud scored twenty consecutive top ten singles - including four number ones - in the UK, two mumber one albums and a Brit Awards for Best Single with their song The Promise.
Kimberley then became a theatre star and TV presenter and is currently one of the hosts of BBC's Morning Live. And just like her sisters, the 40-year-old almost ended up as a soap star too after auditioning to play Maria Connor in Coronation Street but lost out on the role to Samia Longchambon.
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