Emmerdale’s Liam Fox on divorce, moving house and remarriage to childhood crush

As Emmerdale’s Dan Spencer, actor Liam Fox has been at the heart of several big storylines, including the latest shocking twist that sees his character charged with GBH after punching his daughter’s unwanted stalker. But as the star – who has a son, Ben, 23, and stepdaughter, Gemma, 26, with his first wife, ex-Hollyoaks actress Nicole Barber-Lane, and married second wife JoJo Hudson in 2020 – admits his own life has been just as eventful.

“So much has changed personally since I joined Emmerdale 12 years ago,” he says. “It’s been insane! I have been through a divorce, moved twice, met JoJo, and then got married again.

“But being a part of Emmerdale has been amazing for me. I had waited years for a big break and playing Dan has given me so much confidence.”

Over the past 12 years, Dan has been married twice and also faced the shock of discovering that Amelia, played by Daisy Campbell, wasn’t actually his biological daughter. However, big-hearted Dan has still raised her as if she was his own child.

Liam, 53, says he has loved every minute of his time on the soap and none more so than now as he gets stuck into his
toughest plotline yet. This week, trouble erupts when Dan catches a man, Lloyd, stalking Amelia after she started interacting with strangers online. Enraged, Dan punches Lloyd to the ground, but the injuries are so bad he is rushed to hospital and placed in intensive care.

And while the actor would never condone any form of violence, Liam thinks many parents across the country will be able to relate to Dan’s desperate attempt to try to protect Amelia. “This could happen to anyone,” admits Liam. “He is incredibly protective of Amelia and he wants to help her. He just loses it.”

He goes on to add that Dan’s rage is intensified because Lloyd is so “cocky”. “He is not necessarily creepy, but he is an oddball and he finds the man cocky,” Liam says.

“Amelia has been influenced before with online stuff, so it is history repeating itself. The actor who plays Lloyd [Matt Sutton] is brilliant. He is incredibly convincing and when Lloyd is rushed to hospital, everyone is on a knife edge. You’ve no idea if the guy will survive or not. Dan tries to get on with his life to a certain extent, but it’s a huge worry.”

Liam hopes the storyline will help raise awareness about the dangers of social media, especially with children. “There are a lot of angry people out there, and I don’t use Twitter any more myself,” he adds.

“I’ve loved filming the scenes with Daisy, who plays Amelia. We are very close and when I first met her she was a little kid. Now she’s almost 20!” Liam is keeping tight-lipped about what will happen to Dan, but he says it has been a lot of fun to play out.

Away from the soap, he paints a happy picture of his life with his wife JoJo. They first dated as students at the University of Salford, but subsequently split. Liam went on to marry Nicole in 1999. They divorced in 2015 and a few years later, Liam met up again with JoJo. They tied the knot in Cheshire in 2020.

“JoJo is incredible,” he says. “I’ve recently just had a birthday and she did so much for me. She even surprised me with
FA Cup Final tickets. I support Manchester United and I thought we were just going to go to Wembley to watch the game in a pub. She then pulled out a ticket for me to go. I couldn’t believe it!”

Two years ago, Liam bravely gave an interview with The Mirror about his dad’s 40-year alcohol battle, which eventually killed him in February 2021 and caused his family decades of pain. The actor had always kept his heartache private but wanted to share his devastating experience in the hope that it would help thousands of other families facing a similar situation.

“I am glad I talked about Dad,” he says today. “And it’s good to continue to talk about the dangers of alcohol. It’s the worst drug of all because it is socially accepted.”

At the time of the interview, he also admitted that both he and JoJo had discussed fostering children in the future. “We are not ready to do it yet,” he says. “I think to do something like that you have to be ready 100% and with me filming a lot now, it is difficult. But it might be something we can do in a few years’ time.”

Returning to Dan’s latest dramatic plotline, Liam jokes that whenever he is involved in a huge story, fans notice him more when he is out and about. “If you are on screen, people spot you all the time,” he admits. “Once you are off screen, it gradually fades and I do get people coming up and asking, ‘Don’t I know you from somewhere?’ I always reply, ‘Yes, I was up the ladders cleaning your windows on Monday!’

“Being in Emmerdale is so much fun and I am having a brilliant time. I am buzzing playing Dan and I have also made some amazing friends on set who I know will be mates forever. I am glad I was given the break 12 years ago to play Dan.

“Originally, I was only supposed to be in the soap for six weeks, but I then got signed up on a permanent basis. I’ve loved it all and it’s great to be part of such a big storyline.”

Emmerdale airs weekdays at 7.30pm on ITV1 .

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