IT was the role that provided her big break – but Gemma Atkinson says working on Hollyoaks felt more like being on a crazy Club 18-30-style holiday than doing a job.
The 37-year-old actress recently returned to the Channel 4 soap as Lisa Hunter for a special cameo appearance, and says filming is very different to how it was 20 years ago.
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Gemma — now mum to Mia, two, and engaged to former Strictly dancer Gorka Marquez — said of her time as a teenage actress: “It was crazy, even the crew.
“That’s why we say how lucky we were.
“I went back about a month ago just to film one episode and all the crew are still there.
“Some have got married and had babies. It was nice to see the transition everyone has been through.
“We were looking at each other going, ‘Do you remember you did this and you did that?’.
“It was wild back then. It was like an 18-30s holiday. Now everyone has grown up, really. Everyone’s phone screen shows a dog or a kid.”
Unlike the big names from Coronation Street and EastEnders, Gemma says the cast from the teen soap did not draw as much attention.
She explained: “No one used to bother about us going and getting p***ed at the National Television Awards, whereas Corrie and those lot had to sit prim and proper because they were the proper soaps.
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“There was no social media . . . no s****y comments.
“We used to say growing up in the public eye was like university but we got paid. That’s how it felt.”
Gemma became so popular that fans snapped up her racy calendars and she had magazines bidding for her to appear on their covers.
She ended up doing one photoshoot a month for three years.
But landing a dream career modelling and on TV was not her plan — it was all down to her mum.
Gemma, who grew up in Bury, Gtr Manchester, said on Vicky Pattison’s podcast The Secret To: “When I was about 14 my mum’s friend had said in passing, ‘Your Gem should do some modelling’.
“I was like, ‘There is no chance’. I have never been into my hair and make-up — it didn’t appeal to me. So my mum said, ‘OK, forget it’.
“Then, about three weeks later, she said, ‘You have a dentist appointment. I’m picking you up from school early’.
“We went past the dentist. I said, ‘Where are we going?’.
“She said, ‘We are going to the Manchester Model Agency’.
“I was in my school uniform, sat there fuming, with a face on. They came out and they signed me.
“So we did these pictures. Literally a couple of weeks later they said, ‘Hollyoaks are auditioning. It is for a grumpy schoolgirl called Lisa and we remember the time you came in’.”
Within hours of her first audition Gemma landed the job, and she started work three months later.
She went on to play Tamzin Bayle in Casualty, Carly Hope in Emmerdale and appeared on I’m A Celebrity.
It took a long time for Gemma — now a host on Hits Radio — to embrace social media, and now she shares her passion for fitness, animals and motherhood with her two million followers.
She said: “I thought the concept of letting strangers know what I was doing was a bit strange.
“I didn’t have Facebook, Twitter or Instagram, I didn’t have anything. Then someone came up to me on a night out and said, ‘It’s me from Twitter’.
“They had been having a conversation with a fake profile of me for four months.
“My agent said, ‘We have to have a verified account to stop the fake ones’. That’s how I got into it with Twitter, because of an impostor.”
Now Gemma is a writer too. Her recently published fitness guide, The Ultimate Body Plan For New Mums, includes simple, nutritious recipes and tips on self-care.
The star said: “When I was pregnant, the first question I was asked in interviews was, ‘When are you going to snap back and what is your timeframe?’.
“It really stuck with me. There was nothing I had read that was just real for me.
“I want to talk about the fact I didn’t have a pregnancy glow. I was f***ing sweating daily.
“I wanted to write something that was my honest opinion.”
Gemma has been open and down to earth about the various challenges she has faced, including her struggles with breastfeeding.
She told Vicky on her podcast: “You end up with a Maccies in the back of the car whether you start on breast or you start on bottle.
“I remember I was one of those mums saying, ‘She is not going to have chocolate’.
“But as soon as she could eat proper food, I was driving and she was screaming.
“I did an emergency stop for some chocolate buttons and I was like, ‘F***ing take them. Have them all’.”
The busy mum also has a wedding to plan with Spaniard Gorka, 31, who she met on Strictly in 2017.
She said: “My favourite reality show was Strictly because I met Gorka on there.
“Strictly was the job that changed my whole life. As a result of that show I have my fiancé and little girl.”
The couple were not partnered but became close on tour.
Then, after Gorka invited her to join him for a breakfast, they became inseparable.
‘I CAN’T HELP IT IF GUYS WANT TO MARRY ME’
Gemma insisted they later went on holiday together to test their relationship.
She said: “It wasn’t secret on the tour. All the cast knew because we were staying in the same hotels.
“We used to just book the same room. It was so nice. You are very well looked after — cars to and from the studio.
“You get your schedule and your call time.
“Everything is done for you and it is easy. We said, ‘This isn’t real life at all. This is a bubble we are very privileged to be in.
“Once this ends, you live in London and I live in Manchester’.
“We booked a holiday to Tenerife. We were together all day every day for three weeks.
“They always say going on holiday with someone is a good test. We went — and we loved it.”
Gemma’s exes include footie stars Cristiano Ronaldo and Alan Smith, Blue singer Lee Ryan and her Emmerdale co-star Cleveland Campbell.
This is the third time she has been engaged, after footballer Marcus Bent and Britain’s Got Talent star Liam Richards had popped the question, only for the relationships to end.
She said: “People say, ‘Oh, you have been engaged three times’. I can’t help it if guys want to marry me!”
Now she and Gorka are planning a small wedding abroad.
Gemma said: “We’ve said we would prefer to try for another baby rather than have a big, fancy wedding.
“There are people who will spend £50k on a wedding and you think, ‘Oh my God’.
“Twice we thought about going to the register office and just doing it and then having a big party.”
Whatever they choose, it will have to fit around their work schedules — and Gemma reckons she would struggle to go back into acting now.
She said: “With soap, there is no schedule. You are either in eight-until-eight or they’ll ring you and say you’ve got two scenes, so you start at ten.
“You get in, of course, and you don’t start at ten. There’s loads of waiting around. When I didn’t have a child, I could go in at the drop of a hat. I’d be there in an hour.
“With radio, I know my hours each day — a routine. I’m a sucker for a routine now I’m older, being able to plan. You can’t have that with soap.
“I am very fortunate where I can just do the radio — and that works for me.”
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