Emmerdale's Daisy Campbell admits brutal ITX axing left her in 'dark hole'

Daisy Campbell has spoken out about the heartache that came after her role on Emmerdale was 'ripped away' from her. The actress, 22, was just seven years old when she was cast as Amelia Spencer on the ITV soap, but after being axed when a new producer came in last year, she was left wondering what her future would look like because she had played the part since she was a child.

The former soap star did have a 'gut feeling' that it was coming for her, especially after her on-screen dad, played by Liam Fox, decided to quit the year before, but it didn't make it any easier to accept the news when it came.

She said: "When it's been ripped away from you, because that's what it genuinely felt like, it was so out of the blue - you do just get into a bit of a hole of, oh god, like, can I do this? It was weird, because it was so abrupt, obviously Liam Fox, who played Dan, my dad, he left the year before (in 2023), and I just had a feeling… I always get gut feelings.

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“It was at the beginning of the year, things were quiet. Obviously, we had the new producer come in. And then when it came to contracts, nothing came through, so I was like, 'oh'… and then obviously it happened," she told The Sun.

Daisy found the axing 'upsetting' and 'loved the job' so much that she was left wondering why she was the one who had to suddenly face the chop. The actress said she found herself in a "dark hole" after leaving the programme.

Over the years, the actress saw her character through numerous storylines, particularly as she hit her teenage years, such as losing her mother, Ali (Kelli Hollis), when she died in a car crash in 2018.

Following this, she found a maternal figure in Kerry Wyatt (Laura Norton). For many years, it was assumed that Dan (Liam Fox) was her father, but DNA tests later revealed that it was, in fact, his brother Daz (Mark Jordon). In 2022, Amelia fell pregnant herself at the age of 15 following a drunken party, and she and Samson Dingle (Sam Hall), who is now in prison, became parents to baby Esther.

Amelia also had a relationship with Tom King (James Chase), who had been abusing his wife, Belle Dingle (Eden Taylor-Draper), but after he was sent to prison, she opted to leave the Yorkshire village to live in Leeds with her biological father. Daisy made her final appearance as Amelia just days before Christmas last year, and her only other television job since then was a guest role in Casualty that aired in June.

Daisy previously admitted that it 'wasn't her choice' to leave and that she was left in 'shock' when she was told that she was set to leave.

She told The Mirror: "It wasn't my choice to leave Emmerdale, and it was a shock at first. Being in Emmerdale is all I have ever known. I've spent the whole of my childhood growing up in the soap, and it felt daunting." Despite this, she eventually accepted the choice as she realised that it made sense within the story.

She said: "Once they explained, I totally got it. Amelia isn't part of the Dingles, her dad has left, Samson has gone now and she doesn't have any family. There is nowhere to take Amelia and I understand that. I feel incredibly lucky to have been in the soap for 13 years and to have been handed so many opportunities at such a young age."

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