Abuse nightmare continues for Emmerdale’s Rhona

Emmerdale actress Zoe Henry has said her character’s abusive relationship is about to take another dark turn, despite the marriage being over.

Viewers have seen Rhona Goskirk intimidated, bullied and raped by her new husband Pierce Harris (Jonathan Wrather) – but even though she has managed to get him out of her house, her abuser is far from being out of her life.

Henry explained that Pierce would continue to torture her character by letting himself back in to her home to leave messages for her and play tricks.

“She’s a woman on the edge.”

In one upcoming scene, Rhona wakes up from a deep sleep to discover her five-year-old son playing outside the house and a number of empty blister packs of pills lying around planted by Pierce – leading onlookers to believe that she has a continuing problem with drugs.

“Apart from the rape, it’s been this emotional coercion and that’s the interesting part, the bit people are latching on to.

“He’s an awful human being capable of doing awful things, and people are strangely drawn to watching him.”

“It’s the unknown, no one knows what he’s capable of.”

She continued: “What’s clever about this is that he’s a relatively new person on the scene – we feel like we know him, but we don’t know anything about his past or his family life.

“He is very complex and Jonathan’s playing it brilliantly.”

:: Emmerdale continues on week nights at 7pm on ITV.