SOAP star Samantha Giles is stunningly pretty. So it's no surprise that the actress who plays Woolpack landlady Bernice in ITV's Emmerdale was nominated for Sexiest Female Soap Star in last week's Soap Awards.
It's sheer coincidence that things are hotting up for Bernice, wife of vicar Ashley. She has just embarked on an affair with Spanish lothario Carlos.
Samantha lives during the week in a flat in Leeds, and with her husband Nick Moore an Orange executive, in Windsor, which is where we met. Friendly and endearingly open, her sunny exterior balances her more fragile nature.

Sam Says:
Weight is a big thing with me. Oh God! I used to be about 13 stone. Yeah, really No, really truly
I've got photos somewhere to prove it as well. I was a lot bigger. I was really unhappy at university and I comfort ate. A lot of chocolate.
And you never lose that self-image. It doesn't matter how slim you get, you always see yourself as big. It never leaves you. Even though most of the time now I think, "Yes, I'm fairly happy with how I look", my weight still upsets me.
I got depressed watching bloody Bridget Jones's Diary, because I thought she was slim. I seriously thought, "My God! She can't possibly have put on two stone for this."
Sure she looked big in the bunny costume, when they lifted her boobs up and everything, fleshy at the back. But her bottom and her thighs, I thought, were slim. So I thought, "God. this is terrible. People think she's fat. What must they think of me?"
And when I go to buy clothes I get depressed. I hate it. I'm 5ft 8ins, and even though I'm a size 12 now, and I probably was a 1.6 at my biggest, if I'm honest. I can still never get anything that fits.
I'm a pear shape. So I've always got the. you know. the bum and the thighs. Look here! Look at this: I try not to be obsessive about my bum, but I'd love a smaller bottom.
It's a very long bottom as well! Sheree - who plays'Tricia - and I once stood behind the bar in Emmerdale. and measured ourselves from the bottom. of the bottom to the waist. And mine is a lot longer than hers.
What it means is that, you know all those low-waisted jeans? I can't wear them. Because if' I bend over, I've literally got a builder's bum.
They're so low. It's terrible Sheree, by the way, has just had a baby. She's really happy, very tired. Her figure's sprung back already. Bitch!
I remember at junior school getting teased about my bottom. I was the tallest person in the class and I had the biggest feet.

The biggest everything.I developed really quickly. I didn't have any boobs, but I had everything else.
And when I was ten I weighed 7.5 stone. It doesn't sound a lot, but I was heavier than all the boys.
I was the heaviest in the whole class. It was so embarrassing. I can remember doing diets throughout my teenage years. 1500 calories a day. A waste of time.
When I got to university I started comfort eating because I couldn't make any friends. I didn't fit in I was at Bristol, did Drama and English. They were either wacky, or up their own arses. It was really lonely, and I just ate chocolate. Ate and ate.
But it's only when I left, after I got my degree. that I thought, "My God. I feel a bit big."
And I weighed myself. I'd lost my appetite. because I went through a · depression. and I didn't feel hungry. I
thought, "Maybe it's safer now to look at the scales." And I was 13 stone. I was shocked.
I But it came off really quickly because I wasn't eating. I didn't have an eating . disorder, I could never be bulimic, but
it was a feeling of knots in my stomach.
If I ate something, I just felt full up. As if I couldn't eat. I think it would be great now, just to have a week of not being able to eat!
I got down to between 10 and l0.5 stone,and that's what I am now. I try and eat when I'm hungry and not to be silly. I haven't weighed myself since just before I got married last year. I was 10st 2lbs. Happy with that.
I definitely feel more attractive now, · more confident, the last few years. Ever since I've been with Nick.
He's responsible for a lot to do with how I feel. I'm calmer. Because he actually loves my bottom! It makes me not hate it quite as much as I did. And two weeks ago, I wore a bikini on holiday. But I'll always see myself as big. You get your food attitudes from your parents and definitely Mum has got some sort of food thing.
She's notorious, always gives people massive portions. She's a hairdresser, Dad's a fireman, and both are very creative. I've got a younger sister. I had a very happy childhood growing up in Maidenhead. Safe.

I'VE always been a bit of an attention-seeker, a show-off. Ever since I was tiny. I suppose that's where the acting came from. In my blood. But when I left university. I'd lost a lot of confidence. I did a play at the Edinburgh festival in '93, which was a real hit. but after that there was absolutely nothing. I had one day's work in two years.
That's when the depression set in. I started cleaning and waitressing. Then temping work.
I was having a lousy relationship with an alcoholic, although I didn't know he was. And that was awful. We should never have got together, but it lasted three years.
It was a real clinical depression. I wasn't getting up in the morning, I wasn't wanting to wash. I couldn't even bear to talk to people. I felt suicidal at times, I really did.
One day I was cleaning a flat above a restaurant, and they had this lovely dog. The place was disgusting. and I was in the kitchen. They had all these big knives. I would never have slit my wrists, because I'm too cowardly. And squeamish.
But I remember sitting on the floor and looking at the knives and having a little boo. And thinking, "I really could do something to myself." And the dog came in and, you know how they know? Started licking my hand and whimpering and that just snapped me out of it.
Then I did a Dangerfield and it was so good for me to get away from him. and to work.I had a bit of a fling with one of the guys on that, and I thought, "Christ! What the bloody hell have I been doing all these years? "I wasn't brave enough to actually finish it. It was such a cop-out. He read my diary and discovered I'd been unfaithful. I wanted him to read it. I was so relieved when he said. "What's this?" Such a relief! We split up and three days after, I went out with Nick.
It was ever so quick. I met him when I was temping at Habitat. That was three-and-a half-years ago. I changed agents. started getting auditions. And a few months later, three years ago, I got Emmerdale.
I love it, its a great programme to work on. The people are fantastic. When and if it does come to an end for me, it's going to be awful. I love playing Bernice, especially the new big story.
The affair with Carlos, it's quite steamy. She's just fallen totally in love with him. He's releasing a younger, more frivolous side of her.
I'm so glad I met Nick before Emmerdale. He's not the sort to go out with me just because I was on the telly, but if you are and you don't have a partner, who do you trust`?
It must be a nightmare. He was a sales manager at Habitat, and there was a definite twinkle.
He's tall, 6ft. very thin. he's got black hair, a big nose. I like big noses. Very long artistic fingers, mid-blue eyes.

And one of his front teeth is chipped which sounds awful, but is quite sexy. He's stubborn and he's funny, we laugh a lot. Very practical, always has an answer. Grounds me when I'm up in the air.
I knew I was going to marry him. Well, I knew I wanted to. Something just went like that! It was ages. a year and a bit before he asked me.
I knew immediate~, even though he's got two boys. He was married before, well divorced when we met. Ordinarily that would put me off. But quite the reverse. He's 39, I'm 30 at the end of the month. We got married last September
in Windsor. We definitely want children. Trying? That makes me laugh that expression! Not at the moment. Although we are still having sex regularly, you'll be happy to know!
I'm having a good time. I was very happy all my life until I got to 18. And then for a long time it was awful. And then the last three years it's gone back to how I remember life. Like when I was growing up. Able to enjoy it.
It's a lot to do with Nick and a lot to do with the fact that I'm doing a job that I really enjoy. It's about self esteem.
Looking back. I was in the wilderness for about eight years. It's a long time, but some people go through their whole lives, don't they? I could cry when I think about that.
But look at me now. Here I am. Happy. I get tired and a bit low every now and again, but that's my personality. Prone to highs and lows a little bit. But I'm a different girl now. Happy and contented. That's me.

MY BIGGEST DOWNFALL
More than chocolate - I've got to be in the mood for that - It's jam roly-poly! I could eat it any time it's absolutely delicious. Sometimes they do it in the canteen at YTV, and Marks & Spencer do a really nice one really nioe one. My gran used to make all the stodgy puddings, and I still love them. But not with custard or cream. Evaporated milk, it's sweeter than cream. I have been known to eat spoonfuls in the middle of the night!
MY FAVOURITE DRINK
KIR Royale, a mixture of champagne, and creme de cassis. It's lovely. I don't really like champagne straight. Too acidic. I first had a Kir, made with white wine, when I went to France when I was 16. I discovered the champagne version much later.
MY MEALTH REGIME
I take vitamin B6 PMT. Oh god, it's bad, really bad if I don't take it. It lasts a week, ten days. Sometimes I get weepy and feel really low, and other times I'm irritable and paranoid. Usually if Nick and I have a big row you know that my period s about to start. The last time I got so bloated, I felt like I'd put on a stone. But it's not just on your stomach. Your legs, your face. I.ike everywhere.
MY BIGGEST TREAT
MY obsession is salad cream. I don't like mayonnaise, it's too creamy and gloopy. Salad cream is a bit more vinegary and probably more common. I think mayonnaise is more sophisticated. I have it on everything - on chips, on roast dinners, I don't like gravy. Every food, except maybe a curry They were going to take it off the market last year and I was devastated. If they had done, I'd have written to Heinz.
MY EXERCISE REGIME
I go through phases. We went to St Lucia on holiday a month ago, and before we went I did a bit of the Rosemary Conley Hip and Thigh workout thing. But I get really bored. I went swimming yesterday because on holiday I swam every day and I really felt it was toning things. I like dance. I did ballrnom and latin American, exams and everything when I was 17, so maybe I should Lake up dancing again. I'd really love it.
MY CROWNING GLORY
MY hair is so thick, it can he a real pain. And when I dry it, it's out to here. But I could never cut it off'. When I was 11, my mum cut my hair really short. I'd always felt clumpy, being tall, but that made me just feel so masculine. I was so convinced at that age. Often I still do think I look like a man. I must have been a man in a former life, or something