Emmerdale star reveals Steph ‘hits the lowest of the low’ in heart-wrenching twist

Steph Miligan (Georgia Jay) is coping with a lot in Emmerdale at the moment. Her worry about her grandfather Anthony (Nicholas Day)’s disappearance turned to absolute horror when she found out the truth behind what had happened – that he’d been killed by her mother, Ruby (Beth Cordingly), and his body disposed of by John Sugden (Oliver Farnworth). 

It wasn’t long before Steph learned the background to this. The devastating truth that Ruby had desperately tried to protect her from was that Caleb wasn’t Steph’s father. Anthony had abused Ruby for years and Steph was his biological daughter. 

In the weeks since that revelation Steph has struggled to come to terms with this information, as Georgia Jay explained to us. 

‘Steph is in a state of being completely bewildered and doesn’t know which way is up or down,’ she said.  

Steph’s grandfather Anthony is also her biological dad (Picture: ITV)

It’s horrific for Steph that she feels like she looks like Anthony. When she looks into the mirror, she sees his likeness looking back at her. 

‘She has intrusive thoughts in the form of imagery and she becomes obsessed with wanting to change her image,’ Georgia said. ‘She’s particularly focused on her nose and wanting to have a nose job. This also develops into wanting to have a brow lift as well. They’re the two things that she’s focused on at the moment.  

Unbeknownst to her parents she books herself in for face-altering surgery at a private clinic, making up a story that she’s going away on holiday to visit a friend. But just as she’s about to undergo the procedure, Caleb (William Ash) and Ruby track her down and stop the surgery going ahead. 

Georgia explained that Steph reacts badly to this intervention. 

Steph Miligan had her life changed when she learnt the truth about her grandfather (Picture: ITV) Steph wants to change how she looks (Picture: ITV)

‘She’s a young woman, she’s not a child, and she has liberty to make her own choices. It frustrates her that they are trying to take control of this choice which she believes is fully hers. So she doesn’t react well at all. I think it actually does more damage than we would think because it takes her down an avenue that gets her plotting to perhaps self-harm herself.’ 

 As Steph is on her own at Mill Cottage following this she finds herself in the middle of a mental health crisis and she’s found by Ross (Mike Parr). 

‘With everything that’s going on she lashes out, verbally and physically, and it’s a really upsetting moment because she really is doing it to herself,’ Georgia said. ‘The words that she uses are all towards herself, they’re not towards him. She’s describing herself. It’s all quite upsetting but unfortunately she takes it out on him.’  

Eventually Ross manages to calm her down, but that’s not the end of the turmoil for Steph, Georgia said: ‘She runs off to the depot in a car. She drives off in a car and keeps drinking until she’s absolutely frustrated and doesn’t really know what’s going on.’ 

But there could be light at the end of the tunnel for her, as Georgia speculated that this is her lowest point. 

‘I’d say this is pretty much the lowest of the low,’ she said. ‘I think you’ve got to hit rock bottom before you can go up. I think there’s a lot of building back up after this.’