Gemma Oaten opens up on her eating disorder struggles

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Former Emmerdale actress Gemma Oaten has revealed she was forced to turn to benefits to pay her rent and bills during the pandemic when work dried up and she was left struggling financially. The on-screen star, who is best known for playing Rachel Breckle in Emmerdale, has addressed her money woes in a candid admission.

The 38-year-old was touring with a play called Ten Times Table when lockdown hit in March 2020, consequently losing her job.

The soap star recently reflected on the “worst time” in her life as she admitted she feared being unable to pay her bills.

She has since spoken out about claiming universal credit after her play was cancelled during the height of the coronavirus pandemic.

When theatres closed Gemma was left with “no money coming in” as she didn’t receive any compensation after losing her job.

In an interview with Me & My Money, Gemma said: “People think if you’ve been on television, you must have money. But I was renting and I started having sleepless nights about my bills. By May, I realised I couldn’t make it work.

“So I took a deep breath, and did what a lot of people did. I went on Universal Credit.”

The actress explained she was on the government benefit for a year.

She added: “I also got the self-employment grant from the Government. That helped me pay my rent and then I started doing some public speaking work online.”

Gemma also addressed her financial habits and admitted she is quite a savvy saver and had learned from an early age that “money doesn’t buy happiness”.

Her mum worked as a teaching assistant and her dad was an accountant.

The family was comfortable and were able to enjoy holidays and other luxuries.

Sadly, when Gemma was 15, her dad, who was the “main breadwinner”, was made redundant which meant the family had to “cut out costs” but they “made the best of it”.

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The former Emmerdale actress recalled the time when she was paid £7,000 for an hour and a half of her time to deliver a keynote talk at a gala dinner.

She said: “I spent some of it on a holiday and saved the rest.”

Elsewhere, the on-screen star opened up about her health battle on ITV’s Lorraine in a candid chat today.

The performer revealed that she doesn’t know if she can have children following her past battle with an eating disorder.

The actress, who developed anorexia at 10 before struggling with bulimia, appeared on Lorraine to discuss her experience with Milk-alkali syndrome earlier this year, which saw her rushed into hospital earlier this year.

She told Lorraine Kelly’s stand-in Carol Vorderman: “I don’t share my story for a ‘woe is me’ or the violins. I share it because I don’t want anyone to go through what I am.

“Even though I’ve been well for 15 years, this last year I found out I don’t know whether I can have children, [and] I had the Milk-alkali syndrome because I was trying to do something I thought that was right but it wasn’t.

“Tomorrow I’m going for major dental surgery because my teeth are falling apart from years of damage.”

She added: “It’s such a difficult and toxic illness to battle – it’s a mental health illness. A lot of people think it’s about vanity and social media – it’s not, it’s about human beings struggling with pain.”

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