I didn't know what was real ... it took time to start again

Jaye Griffiths recalls the horror of being trapped in a five-year abusive relationship

- BY SUE CRAWFORD

SLAP Nasty Celia hits Alice in Emmerdale

Emmerdale farmer Celia Daniels is not just cruel and manipulative, she is also more dangerous than anyone could have had imagined.

This week she was revealed as the mastermind behind the drugs gang terrorising the village. She violently slapped teenager April Windsor and threatened her life.

Jaye Griffiths, 62, loves playing nasty Celia but also knows what it is like to be an abuse victim. She was in a relationship with a violent and controlling man who gaslit her for five years. She says: "I couldn't tell anybody because I was so ashamed. I didn't know if what I thought was real, because he would constantly tell me I was wrong and the day after he hit me, I would get jewellery.

"I lived in this twilight existence and had to start again. I had to find out that someone walking behind you didn't mean you were going to get clobbered, that people sometimes said truthful things. But that took a very long time.

"When I finally went to the police they said on average a woman is hit 37 times before she tells anyone.

"All I did was lie - 'no, I'm fine thanks, I'm fine'. That's exhausting."