Emmerdale star Claire King addresses mixed reaction to Kim Tate's 2018 return

Emmerdale actor Claire King has addressed the mixed fan reactions to the return of her character Kim Tate in 2018.

In an interview with TV Times, the soap star described her character as "Marmite" and said not everyone was originally pleased to see her return to Emmerdale.

"Kim's like Marmite – you either love her or you hate her. Or you love to hate her! When I came back four years ago, there was a whole generation who didn’t know Kim, so you have to overcome that," she said.

ITV

"Some people don't like new characters because they don't like change, and they particularly don't like nasty characters. But everyone loves a baddie at the end of the day. She is kind of part of me now," she added.

When Kim returned to the show in 2018, she was an extravagant villain and some fans weren’t massively appreciative of that. But it's safe to say she's now won them over.

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"People love Kim as she says and does things and gets away with murder – literally – which you couldn't do in real life."

ITV

King also revealed why she deliberately made the choice to have Kim be a "soap bitch" on the show.

"Because the character of Lynn Whiteley [played by Fionnuala Ellwood], who was the only 'bitch' at the time, had gone. And also Dynasty and Dallas were doing it and we hadn’t really got that sort of character in the UK, so I thought: 'Come on, we can camp it up a bit here!'" she explained.

"It's not real life, really. It's escapism that takes people away from the dismal lives we are all leading at the moment," she added.

Emmerdale airs on weeknights at 7.30pm on ITV, and streams on the ITV Hub.